Sorting through the snail mail spam

I lived alone for many years before the hubby showed up. I also worked the 3 p.m. to midnight shift for much of that time. That meant I didn’t have a "normal" social life, not that that’s necessarily bad. But it can be a bit lonely.

So during those years,  I came to look forward to the mailman’s visit. The mail, be it letters from family or friends or bills or flat out junk mail, was my contact with others.

Yeah, a bit sad, I admit. And now that I think about it, it probably explains why I still subscribe to way too many magazines that pile up, mostly unread, around the house.

But at least I wasn’t striking up conversations with telemarketers.

To this day, I open every piece of mail, even the stuff that I can tell from the envelope is obviously worthless. Plus nowadays you have to open it all because in many cases you have to separate out any material that might be fodder for identity thieves. You can’t stick the whole envelope in those low-cost shredders; they’ll jam. Trust me. I know.

And if you’re opening it, you might as well read it, too, right? You might chance upon something interesting or entertaining if not useful.

Take today’s batch from the U.S. Postal Service. Heartfelt pleas from a couple of charitable organizations. We belong to one group, which wants us to renew (even though our membership is months away) and the other, Meals on Wheels, is worth looking into.

There also was a mailer with a $5-off coupon for any purchase at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I might get out there before it expires in a few weeks.

And then we got this great offer to refinance our home loan. If I hadn’t opened the lovely green envelope I would have never known about the great opportunity to refinance up!

Yes, the hubby and I, if we act by March 23, can redo our loan and pay $109 more a month than what we currently pay. Let’s see, that would be $1,308 more a year in interest to deduct. Thanks, but no thanks. We’re not in that big of a need of a tax break.

This kind of snail mail spam, which we get regularly along with the continuing stream of assorted "you’re already approved" credit card mailers, fascinates me.

Does anyone ever respond to these solicitations? I mean those where it looks like you might save a few bucks. I guess enough people do to justify the printing and bulk postage rates.

But even if the hubby and I were in the market to refinance, I wouldn’t just go with some unknown company that dropped a form letter into the mail.

Of course, if such an offer arrived in our curbside box from a Nigerian prince who also happens to run a mortgage lending operation, that would be a totally different story.