Postage Woes

And the vicious cycle continues. Ever since email has become the go-to means of communication, the post office has been suffering. How does USPS battle the online onslaught? Well, by raising the price of stamps of course. In order to continue to make a profit with declining customers (20% fewer letters have been sent in the past 10 years - that's 11 billion pieces of mail), the post office has to increase the cost of stamps. (To be fair, the prices are also increased to offset inflation.) But, what results from the price hike? Some irritated customers... who turn to more email in frustration!

Why am I ranting about this? Because the annual postage increase is throwing a wrench in my wedding mailing plans. The cost of a first-class stamp is going to 44 cents on May 11th. So what? Most of you are probably saying, gee, at least she knows about the change far in advance. Point taken, but, here are the issues. The wedding invitations themselves will be sent before the May 11th rate hike and should be safe from drama; they need to go out towards the end of March. The RSVP envelope, pre-stamped by me, myself, and I, is another story.

Those are supposed to be returned to my mom by May 1st. Knowing however, that people will probably send them back late, I now have to figure out whether to stick with the 42 cent stamp on the RSVP, or play it safe and shell out the extra two cents for each envelope just in case people send them back later. I could go with the Forever stamps on all the RSVPs, but gosh they're ugly. I'm sure that's what I'll end up doing, but it means I have to start stalking the post office in Anacortes to hoard those stamps. Anyone know a good black market contact for Forever stamps? :)

Am I missing any potential problems with this rate hike? Anybody see a flaw in my plan for dealing with the United States Postal Service?