Want to stop receiving grocery circulars? Click here and fill out the form.

Worried about identity theft? Just simply tired of the amount of pre-approved credit card offers you receive? You can stop those offers easily by visiting Opt Out's website (note: you'll be asked for your social security number but it's a secure site).

About 10 years ago, I was amazed at how much junk mail I was receiving: store flyers, insurance and credit card offers, and random, unsolicited mail. I lived on the second floor in a neighborhood that had garbage collection just once a week, and I noticed that a large portion of my garbage was unsolicited mail. Not sure at first what to do, I made up some labels for myself, like the one pictured above, slapped it on the junk mail, and popped it back in the mail box.

My mailman began to hate me.

And he told me that the post office is not under obligation to return the junk mail to the sender.

So I did some research and found that contacting the DMA was a good start to receiving less junk. I also found that simply asking the mail delivery person to not give me anything marked "resident" was a help too. I have, however, lived in several places since then, and have found that some postal workers are not cooperative.

The most thrilling discovery in my junk mail research was finding that we, the people, have the legal right to invoice offending companies a processing fee when "no mail" requests are unheeded. One company, The Mt. Laurel Trend, continued to send me their advertorial twaddle every week, even after I asked them not to do so. I sent them a processing fee invoice for $75, and immediately, I received a phone call from their publisher as well as their accounts payable person: they refused to pay me, but they would see to it that I was off of their list from now on. Very satisfying, despite getting dissed for the $75.

Since we just purchased a house, we have been getting credit card and insurance offers at an unreal rate. I was about ready to put the paper shredder in the front foyer to take care of the junk mail immediately, but the shredder/junk mail pail would take away from our renovation and decoration efforts. I found Opt Out, filled out the forms and was told that in a few weeks, the offers should stop.

Junk mail is really a big problem. Most of it isn't even read. The companies who send it will brag about the fact that they use recycled paper, but big deal. Recycling takes a huge amount of energy, and what a waste for a product that winds right back up in a recycling bucket, or worse, the trash can.