Sir:
Something occurred to me while addressing an envelope today that I thought might be of value to your readers.
One small way to beat inflation is to purchase US First Class Liberty Bell “Forever” stamps that guarantees a mailed envelope in the USA forever. They may or may not be available at your post office so ask for them. I bought about $200 worth of stamps before the prices went up and plan to hold on to them for a while. I don’t know if these are still being sold but I think we may have yearly or bi-yearly increases in the coming years so keep an eye out for “Forever” stamps.
I have heard many references to US soldiers in WWII transporting their spoils home via unused sheets of postage stamps as they were not prohibited and they bought large denominations stamps from the US and foreign post offices that were later turned back into cash.
Also, find out if there is any stamp or coin collectors that have access to old sheet or reels of stamps. Apparently, whenever the price of stamps changes, businesses involved in mass marketing or sales find it cheaper to dump their stocks of stamps at a loss (claimed on their taxes I’m sure) than to recalibrate their machines to post two stamps (many machines cannot be adjusted). A local coin dealer sells me 41 cents worth of stamps for about 30 cents if I buy more than $100 worth at a time. He buys them for less than 40% of face value. If you don’t mind licking and adhering multiple stamps. It’s a small savings in your daily budget. – A. Taylor