Through rain and sleet...but probably not through recession. More Postal Service cuts coming

The U.S. Postal Service is having all sorts of financial problems lately, and it's likely to affect consumers' pocketbooks as well as their mail service.

After losing $2.8 billion last year and with larger losses expected this year, the Postal Service is offering early retirement to 150,000 workers across the country, and will eliminate 1,400 management jobs and close six of its 80 district offices, according to an Associated Press story.

How will those closings and other measures affect consumers? In many ways.

Saturday service may be eliminated as Postmaster John Potter has asked Congress to cut delivery to five days a week.

As fewer people mail things and instead use the Internet, more mailboxes are being taken off street corners because they aren't needed anymore. This may not sound like a big problem, but it is for anyone who has to walk to far to drop their outgoing mail in a mailbox, as San Francisco station CBS5 reported in a video story.

And if jobs are being cut, especially mail processing jobs, don't you think it will take a little longer for your mail to arrive?

And on May 11, it's another postage hike, this time to 44 cents. One way to get around this? Buy "Forever Stamps" at 42 cents each. Stock up now before the Postal Service raises rates again.