So long to Saturday mail delivery

(KXAN) AUSITN - Get ready to say "goodbye" to mail in your mailbox on Saturdays. The United States Postal Service announced Wednesday it will cut costs by stopping Saturday deliveries.

The cut is scheduled to happen in August. It's supposed to save the Postal Service about $2 billion a year.

USPS will still deliver packages six days a week, but not other mail, like letters. It's in part because fewer people write letters these days.

"Most of the mail we get nowadays is junk mail," said Elvia Busbee.

Others KXAN talked to Wednesday about the change aren't worried it will make a difference, saying, "If it doesn't arrive Saturday, it'll arrive the following Monday."

Of course, you can always shoot a quick email, right? But what about a time when putting pen to paper was the only way to connect with the ones you love?

Hank Mol has an entire briefcase full of old letters and postcards. Opening it, he digs through the piles.

He pulls out a note, and holding it up to the light reads, "It's dated 20, December 1967. It's from me to my parents."

Mol says his mother saved all the letters he wrote to her and his father. She gave them all back to him before she passed away.

Mol continues to rummage through the stacks of paper and envelopes.

"These are all from Vietnam," he says, "I have added to it letters that my wife saved. So, these are letters from Vietnam to her when I was over there."

Alyce Snead is holding on to special letters from the past as well. There's one that particularly stands out to her.

"This is from my brother," Snead says, looking at the envelope, "Just before he went overseas, and it's dated June 7, 1942."

"I graduated from high school June 2 that year, and he was writing me a letter, thinking about me that night." She paused for a moment, reminiscing.

"Every time I read it, I get overcome," says Snead.

It's a feeling a computer screen just can't quite create.

"Of course you depend on email a lot, but I get cards from my friend from 1941 who lives in Jacksonville, and I look forward to that," says Snead.  

Mol says he hasn't even read through all the letters in his briefcase. He jokes, one day when he's old, he'll take a look to remember everything.

"You can put these away, and then come back to them at a later date. That's a lot better than email, which you may or may not save on your computer," Mol says.  
 
KXAN took a closer look at the Postal Service's efforts to cut costs.

Since 2006, the Postal Service has cut more than a quarter of its full time jobs. It also consolidated more than 200 mail-processing centers and reduced hours at hundreds of rural post offices. The total savings from those measures was about $15 billion.

Despite those cuts, the Postal Service still lost nearly $16 billion last year. One big cost is the amount it has to set aside for health benefits for future retirees. That adds up to more than $11 billion of those losses.