To think 60p is too much for first class stamp?

Most of the 1st class mail in Europe is more expensive than here. I think the problem is partly that it has been such a big rise in one go and the silly thing is that the second class is not much less. You get the feeling that Royal Mail are trying to get us to pay for 1st class and will eventually do away with 2nd.

Don't think you can, jack. We'll just have to hope no one else post on it and it'll gradually fade away.....

Gosh! You're busy on this site this evening anagram. But thanks for this. How can I delete the new thread on this subject? Advice would be appreciated.

Here it is!

I thought the price rise was 30th April? Have to check, but don't get caught out!

I`ve managed to accumulate 3 books of 2nd class and one of 1st class stamps, will have to use them sparingly!

Good idea Hattie!

Start buying now, the price rise is on 1st May.

Most of the Christmas cards I write are for family and friends who live miles away! I really don't want to stop sending cards, and last year to make it easier, I started buying stamps about a month before. However, this year, think I'll have to start in September...

It`s the Christmas posting that I`m not looking forward to, we`re in Lincolnshire, but all mine and hubby`s siblings are in Lancashire and Yorkshire.

My mum always sent me postage stamps when I was a student nurse so that I could keep in touch. They were relatively expensive in the sixties too. I like writing and receiveing letters so I will just have to pay up.

I do think that is far too much for a stamp , it was DD"s birthday two days ago , because now can"t just put card in post with stamp on , they are "sized" so had to take it to the post office to have it weighed and the stamp cost nearly as much as the card itself .

When we lived abroad the post came on Tues/Thurs only at least you knew that you where not getting a bill every day !!!

Annobel

When I lived in East Africa, I loved receiving and sending letters. I wish my mother had kept my letters as a record of what I got up to - or what I told her.

It's sad really - but what with e-mail and now the high cost of sending letters it is an art that is about to be lost. Look how many historical books contain the reams of letters that people used to write. My grandfather once told me that they had 3 deliveries a day. If you posted a letter to a local address in the early morning and caught the first delivery it would arrive in the late afternoon in the 3rd delivery. Now even with the 12 bob stamp we aren't confident it will arrive the next day. When I lived in New York I really looked forward to letters from home and the reverse when I came back. It was lovely to have that envelope in your hand, get a coffee, and sit down and read. I e-mail everyone now, love to hear from people, but it doesn't have the same frisson.

In all this, we have of course forgotten the postie, some of them might well lose their jobs, although I hope not. Our postie is a delight, he always has a quick word if he meets you and obviously enjoys his work. Some of the people on this retired persons site cannot get to the door, so he takes their mail right into their homes, and probably stops for a quick hallo - he often says to us, when he delivers junk mail, 'more for re-cycling!' So what comes round, goes round!

Superdrug usually have reduced price first class stamps, I think I shall have to stock up.

More email is in use now, but I would have thought that the Royal Mail was offsetting that loss by the amount of junk mail that they are now paid to deliver - all of which I think is inappropriate for them to be doing - I only want real mail from my postman.

I am just completing forms for Inland Rev.(their error!). They have now sent me 9 new tax code forms, but no prepaid envelope to return the info they require to confirm THEIR mistake!!
So I'm paying for the stamp! Whilst they have just used up another tree!

You have a point there PRINTMISS. Maybe the lack of real letters is one reason why so many people respond to those junk mailings that offer them ridiculous prizes from lotteries they have never entered. Unfortunately the rise in the cost of postage won't deter these exploitative crooks.

It really was inevitable, wasn't it. So many people now-a-days use e-mail, and I feel rather sorry for the older generation who do not have computers (we rather take it for granted that everyone does), so do not receive letters that way, and may have even fewer things coming through the letter box with the increase in the price of stamps; there really is nothing quite like picking up an envelope from the door mat is there - the expentancy even if you know it is only a bill, 'How much is it?' , and sitting down reading a letter written by a friend makes it more personal. I think e-cards are really good value for money too, but I am loath to use them except as thank you's because again, the personal touch has gone. However, we just can't have everything in life.

I think we should have expected this.

E.mail has taken over a great proportion of business post, the older people who always communicated in writing are dying and the younger generation turn to technology.....they are trying to make up the shortfall.

Then you have e cards so you now dont even need to go out to purchase and post birthday cards.

Whats that saying...... if you dont use it you loose it. Or in this case it becomes out of reach of the pocket of most people who will think twice before buying a stamp

Stamp books as presents wouldn't be anything new. My Gran used to send my Mum a present of stamps when we were evacuated during the war so that Mum could write to Dad. Stamps must have seemed an expensive luxury to people during the war.

12 shillings to post a letter - what would our parents have to say