April next year will probably see a rise of the 1st & 2nd class stamps to 20p and 28p respectively. Our Charity always endeavours to use the 2nd class if possible and so the three newsletters to 400 members each year will cost an extra £12 each year without considering all the other postage. Nevertheless the postal service is pretty good return for little cost at the basic level but times are moving on and the advent of email may spell the ultimate withdrawal of cheap postage over the next decade.

Emails tend to have small print and its not the same reading a printed email as sitting down in front of the fire with a larger print folded newsletter.

I was pleased with the response from at least a couple of our supporters. We suggested that you could extract the prepaid envelope that companies send you in junk mail, stick a white label over the address and then you can use it. Well, one lady sent us a pile of these envelopes that has helped cut down our postage bill. Remember the envelopes must have the two vertical black lines with either 1 or 2 in-between. Another friend sent us a letter with something other than this on it and we ended up having to pay £1 to receive an ordinary letter! Anyway keep sending the junk envelopes with the two lines on and also any foreign coins, franked stamps over 50p in value or foreign stamps and even mobile batteries or toner cartridges; we turn almost anything into funds!