On May 12, the price of a first-class domestic postage stamp will rise a penny, to 42 cents. Postcards are to be 27 cents. (That seems excessive to me, because the earliest first-class denomination I can recall is 19 cents, and now they're saying I can't even mail a postcard for that much? To me, that's crazy.)

Last year, upon the rise from 39 cents to 41 cents, the U.S. Postal Service announced it would issue a "forever" stamp. You'd be able to buy this stamp at the current rate and use it forever -- or, until you run out -- regardless of any future rate increases.

I use about five stamps a month, to pay some bills and send out the occasional birthday card. But I'm also a fan of some of the beautiful themed stamps that the postal service issues each year, whether it be beautiful blooms, the annual Valentines' Day issue or the art of Disney. So, up until this point, I have wanted nothing to do with the forever stamp, a simple Liberty Bell design. (Nothing against the bell, but I like a stamp with a little more excitement and color to it.)

However, at the moment, I am down to my last two 41-cent stamps, the aforementioned beautiful blooms. I figure I could buy 20 more stamps, use 10 of them and buy an additional 10 "make-up rate" stamps to use with the 10 that remained when the rate increase went into effect, two months from now. But, cheapskate that I am, I decided to just get a set of "forever" stamps. It would save me 20 cents in overall postage, and I wouldn't have to worry about going to the post office to get the "make-up rate" stamps in two months.

So, this morning, I drove to the post office to mail a package. The guy behind the counter asked (as they always do) if I needed anything else. I said "20 forever stamps, please." His response? "We're out of forever stamps. We should have them in a couple of days."

I guess I wasn't the only one who wanted to save 20 cents.