InaPickle getting out of a pickle!

REDMADCURLS

My mum used peas - you know the dehydrated one's you need to steep before cooking!

taka

*Delurks*

Dried beans work too!

*Re-lurks*

NorthernLas

Try John Lewis and see if they have any blow torch and ramekin sets left in the sale - maybe cheaper than your on-line purchase (and could you not just use one from B&Q???)

EssexHebridean

In theory I think you could use an ordinary DIY type one, and in some ways it might be easier as it's very easy to create little burnt spots with the cooks ones as they have quite a small flame so you really need to keep them moving. The plus side of the cooks ones though is that the small flame allows you to get into tight areas, for example around the edge of a pastry case. As for the baking beans, dried beans are an excellent solution and if you reserve them in a jar or something you can use them again and again and again - I would return the ones you've bought I reckon!

I was quite chuffed with myself with eBay - managed to get about 16 items listed - although 12 of those were CDs which I don't expect to sell - I was really just running them through there at no cost before I chuck them at Music Magpie! I've now got a box on the go with stuff to list next time which I will add to as the month rolls on - photographing as I go because bizarrely for a keen photographer I hate doing eBay pics! :rotfl:

InaPickle

Wow guys, thanks for all the info. I have some questions to ask, but as as you can see from time of the post, this might not be quite it!

And thanks to you all for delurking. Please do it more often as I often feel like stopping writing as it seems nobody's reading. *Rattles round thread alone*

And get you, Essex - 16 CDs. Well done! Am just revising all my listings from Sunday (I know, I know, but it's been a busy week!), and I have some watchers. Hurrah! :j

InaPickle

Have revised 19/27 items and am going to bed.

The rest can wait until tomorrow night.

Please let me get some more watchers tomorrow. Pretty please.

InaPickle

Had best make this quick:

Returned £33 of Boots sale stuff yesterday that I realised was surplus to present-giving requirements for the year. However, today I did luckily manage to find one of the big Sanctuary drawer sets in the sale for my best friend's birthday next month. Good times!

Have got a few more watchers on Ebay (not many, but every little helps) and one bid on an item. Hurray! :j I still have to revise the final 8 items, though, so I had best get cracking. What is good is that I was describing some of the stuff I have to sell to one of the girls at work and there is an item she wants to buy from me if it doesn't sell online, so that's fab too, especially as it's a bulky item and I need the space!

Got my students insurance for massage today, which was a really good offer, will cover me for my next course as well (double bargain!) and means that I can practice on some people at home before my final assessment. Brilliant! :j

And as for the beads...my main problem has been that I have been wanting to use them for cooking tiny pastry cases, and that means that the rice in a bag would be difficult. (I think it would be easier for one large case, and it's a great tip that I will remember in the future.) I hadn't thought of dried beans etc. (d'oh!), but I found the same beans for sale yesterday in a warehouse before I read your comments, and I bought them as they were a bit cheaper at £3.59. I can't return them there unless they are faulty, so I guess I'm stuck with some now, but I will return the more expensive ones, and the too-small boot shapers I bought to go with them, so that will be a six pound something refund. Good stuff!

I'm also really happy about my wages this month as I got my payslip today and found that I am being paid a considerably more than I thought I would be paid. Due to the ridiculously complicated way in which I am paid, I have spent the past month having horrid visions of having literally no money over and above my basic bills, but the reality is going to be a little less harsh than that. Phew! I still need to be careful, though, and due to signing up for the sports massage course (I got a second wind about the whole college course thing), I will probably be deep into my interest free overdraft for the month. (I was talking to a friend of mine in the week who seems to think that I could get lots of clients doing that, which would be very nice indeed.) I'm making a pledge to myself that this will be the last course I do for which I have not saved up in advance, as I need to get my finances back in order. I have splurged a bit this past month (Soap & Glory :whistle:), mainly buying sales stuff that can be used as presents next year (this was a great time and money saver this past year), so I am pleased that I have done that, even if there is a certain element of short-term pain.

One thing has become abundantly clear this past few days, and that is that I need savings, and lots of them. I feel all spent out (did I ever mention those boots I was looking at? The shop still haven't rung me about them, and I haven't chased it up: que sera, sera, and TBH, I'd be glad just not to have to pay out any more money even if they don't.) Lesson learnt: want - even want a LOT - is not need, and should not be confused as such from the girl who has so many clothes that she hasn't got sufficient places to store them.

I'm liking the feeling of decluttering. I have a long way to go (and Ebay is tedious, but feels nice once the bids start rolling in), but I'm hoping to get there. I'm going to try to keep to the consistently listing smaller numbers of items in order to get rid of my stuff. I can't wait to be rid of it. And some of it will generate money (lots of it, I hope!).

Here's to selling lots. Pretty please.

P.S. Thanks for the tip, Northernlas: I looked online and couldn't see any, rang JL and couldn't get to speak to anyone, but one I thought about it I realised that the blowtorches in the sets tend to be plastic, and I thought that buying a metal one might be a better idea in terms of longevity.

And what's all this about using B&Q blowtorches, guys? Wouldn't they be massive! :eek:

taxi73

good luck on making loads of money on e bay x

REDMADCURLS

LMAO - thinking about that old Tango ad - "I am on the phone (cue massive phone) and you with a blow torch on a little ramkin of creme brulee!

InaPickle

REDMADCURLS wrote: »

LMAO - thinking about that old Tango ad - "I am on the phone (cue massive phone) and you with a blow torch on a little ramkin of creme brulee!

I've never seen that, but there will be some point in the near future when you will be on the phone, and I will be bruleeing like a masterchef!

Have spent today giving best friend a massage for college practice, and I never got round to editing those last Ebay listings, so I need to get it done now before I need to go to my goddaughter's birthday meal in 1 hour, 25 mins.

Better get on with it, then!

P.S. Have one bid and people watching five other items. Please, please pretty please buy them watcher people! *Crosses fingers*