It’s a foregone conclusion that the price of stamps are going to continue to rise year after year. Personally, I only mail out birthday cards to a select few and other odds and ends. I’d be shocked if I mailed out more than 20 things a year. The wife wants to send out christmas cards this year, but I will try and fight that one off. I mean, who doesn’t have email these days?

However, if you are one who enjoys the old school ways of pen and paper or mail in your bills month over month instead of using the most often free online service, there are some steps to take to make sure you aren’t overspending. The price of stamps is going up to $0.44 on May 11th, so look into the following to help save some bucks:

• Make it last forever: USPS introduced the Forever Stamp a few years ago and they have been pretty popular. The great thing about these stamps is that they last, just as their name implies, forever. You can buy stamps today and 4 years from now when they are $0.50 a pop, you can stick a forever stamp on there and still be good. If you use stamps alot, this can be a real dollar saver. Those who avoid snail mail, I’d avoid this option.
• Weigh in: Make sure you weigh your letters and packages to ensure you don’t pay too much in shipping. If you have an eBay! business this is even more important as you don’t want the cost of postage eating into your potential profits. Familiarize yourself with the cost of postage. When in doubt, it may be worth dropping into the Post Office and paying the exact amount. You can get more information on sizes and rates from USPS.
• Check the destination: ensure that you have all the right information on the letter. Nothing worse than opening up your mailbox and getting a “return to sender” stamp on that wedding invitation. Not only is the letter ruined, you have use more postage. Double check that house number and zip code before raising the flag.
• Labels are best: I always wondered how the USPS delivered letters and packages with horrible penmanship on the labels. Do yourself a favor – print out labels from your computer. This will insure your package/letter is delivered with no errors. If you don’t want to make labels, be sure to print the address . Cursive or that chicken scratch you try to pass off as english could cause trouble.

One trick I heard of doing was to change the return address. Let’s say I was mailing a letter to Bob Johnson. I could simply put his name and address in the upper left corner of the letter and stick in a mailbox with no postage. When the Post Office receives the letter and notices no postage, they’ll send it to the return address. If all works, Bob Johnson now receives a letter from me with no postage. I do not condone this, and I’m pretty sure that this would be illegal. You are better off sticking with the sound and law abiding suggestions from up above.