Stop the madness!

So today, just like any other day, I went to the post office to pick up my mail. (That's right I actually have to go to the post office every single day to pick it up because apparently even though you spend 300k on a house and 8k in taxes that just isn't enough money to get the builder to stick a damn piece of plastic with numbers on it at the end of your driveway. Nor is it enough money to pay the mailman to actually drop the mail off at your house. With 169 houses in my subdivision x's 8K in taxes for each house, that comes to $1,352,000.00 a year for the teeny tiny town of beecher. i mean really, how much money are these mailmen making where that just isn't enough? sign me up!)

Anyway, as I was saying...I went to the post office to pick up my mail. I was happy to see that today I had a nice big handful of envelopes. (It just makes me feel better about driving over there when I actually get something.) So I get home to sort through them and what do I have?

1. a new victoria's secret catalogue where they spelled my street name Dtonington? I mean come on people - is there ANY word in the english language that starts with a D and the next letter is a T? I don't think so.
2. an invitation to a surprise party - yay!
3. a new issue of Ladies Home Journal - yay!
4. an invitation to a tupperware party - yay!
5. an application for a Capital One Visa
6. an application for a Chase Mastercard
7. an application for a Discover card
8. an application for some other Mastercard I have never heard of
9. an application for a Home Depot card
10. a notice on how some bank has bought out some credit card that I cancelled 3 years ago.
11. a letter asking me to convert my macy's store card to a macy's visa
11. the nicor bill - booooo
12. the water bill - double boooo

Now really, when is this madness going to stop? I had 7 pieces of mail that are nothing but crap applications for credit cards! and why? I don't sit around applying for credit all day. I have one business credit card which is an American Express. Luckily they are still sending all my AmEx mail to my office in Georgia. There are probably more credit applications that are over there. I have a debit card which has a Visa logo on it that I use for everything - but it comes out of my checking account. I don't charge things on it! And I have one other personal credit card with Visa through AirTran since I fly that airline all the time and can earn free miles if I use it to book my tickets. I've used my macy's card once.

Does everyone in the country get this many of these things or am I on some sort of list? I feel like they are all ganging up on me and trying to break me down. It's like they are on some team bombarding me day in and day out - hoping I will give in and sign up for one. And I seriously feel like at least 10 trees have given their lives just so that I can receive these credit card applications day in and day out. (Don't worry - after I rip them up, I recycle them) Not only do they send me the application, but they have to send a fake card too - like seeing this awesome piece of thin plastic with a nifty little design on it and the words "your name here" is going to inspire me to sign up, pay annual fees, and risk paying 15% interest on an impulse buy. On top of that, there are usually 3-4 pages of stuff telling me why this card is so much better than that card, and why this card is the card I must have. Usually theres a little booklet in there too with all the rules, regulations, and fine print to explain how they can screw you whenever they want to. I really just don't think that all of this is necessary.

My husband has the same cards I do (minus the American Express and Macy's - but he does have a BestBuy card) He NEVER EVER EVER gets this kind of mail. It's just crazy if you ask me. I can't believe that the credit card companies are willing to spend so much money on marketing. I know they make billions every year on financing people who can never pay their debt off - but maybe next year they can consider spending a bit less on the advertising and use that money to re-plant a forest...just a thought.