InaPickle getting out of a pickle!

edinburgher

Postal orders? Oh for God's sake - some banks don't even want to take them they're so infrequently used these days!

Customer service seems to be in the death throes in this country in general {grumble, grumble!}

InaPickle

Today is officially not a good day:

1) Hair-straightener hassle (see above).
2) The power cable to my laptop doesn't plug in very well. I therefore need to dig out the details and get it repaired. Thanks Dell!
3) Stoney broke until paid on Thursday: spent last of money buying a chain for my glasses on Ebay as I'm terrible at misplacing them. I feel like an old gran!
4) Can't afford postal order until Thursday (the Post Office doesn't take CCs, does it?!) which I estimate means that my straighteners won't come back for about a fortnight. I have a birthday party and an engagement to go to in the meantime and would have liked to have had nice hair for those too occasions in particular (as well as every normal day!).
5) Lots of hassle at home. Am back to wishing I had never paid all that money off my CC again.
6) CC bill came: £21.27 interest. Much better than last time (£35+) due to all the overpayments but still...
7) Rang up to see about that job the agency I registered with last year were supposed to put me forward for. Lady said that I was perfect for the job...until the company decided that they needed someone with Spanish as their main language instead of French. How can you make a mistake like that?!

And my one good thing of the day: I finally learnt how to print the address on an envelope. Oh yes: 29 and technologically fine!

Oh, one other reason to celebrate 2 people watching my old MP3 player on Ebay. Starting bids at £100 thankyouverymuch!

emmie26

Sorry pickle I haven't been on for a few days you seem to be having a nightmare, these things are sent to try us, hope everything is going ok at home, don't regret paying off loads of your credit card if you had moved out just think how difficult it would be to pay off debts with all the other overheads. That said, it is only you who knows how crap it is at home and how much you can put up with.
As for the hair straighteners what a disaster, there is no way that my hair is well behaved enough look ok for a nightout without a once over you are very disiplined to resist the temptation to not just buy another set especially after also resisting new shoes you are making me feel bad.;)

BEAT_THE_DEBT

Hi Pickle just been catching up on your diary! Bad news re ghd's i love mine! Would hate to be without them! Well done on ebay! I know what you mean re cc i have also done the same!xx

taxi73

Sorry to hear that you're having a rough time..hope things get bettter for you soon.Well done on bringing the interest down on your CC.

ruby_eskimo

Aww Pickle, you're life seems so hectic at the moment. Good news on the mp3 player watchers and the reduced interest on the CC. Hope things at home get a bit better!

EssexHebridean

You do seem to have listed that mahoosive drop on the CC interest under "bad things" by mistake Pickle - that's a fantastic achievement!

As for the straightener hassle, I feel your pain as I would be totally lost without mine. What a con too - glad now I didn't go down the GHD route - I have had two pairs of Remington Wet 2 Straight now and absolutely love them, I am a complete blow drying div so anything that lets me straighten without having to dry first has to be a bonus. Might I suggest a stiff letter to their customer services department ahead of you sending the PO for the return might be worth a try, particularly if you feel the return costs were not made clear to you.

InaPickle

emmie26 wrote: »

Sorry pickle I haven't been on for a few days you seem to be having a nightmare, these things are sent to try us, hope everything is going ok at home, don't regret paying off loads of your credit card if you had moved out just think how difficult it would be to pay off debts with all the other overheads. That said, it is only you who knows how crap it is at home and how much you can put up with.
As for the hair straighteners what a disaster, there is no way that my hair is well behaved enough look ok for a nightout without a once over you are very disiplined to resist the temptation to not just buy another set especially after also resisting new shoes you are making me feel bad.;)

BEAT_THE_DEBT wrote: »

Hi Pickle just been catching up on your diary! Bad news re ghd's i love mine! Would hate to be without them! Well done on ebay! I know what you mean re cc i have also done the same!xx

ruby_eskimo wrote: »

Aww Pickle, you're life seems so hectic at the moment. Good news on the mp3 player watchers and the reduced interest on the CC. Hope things at home get a bit better!

Hey all, sorry I've been a bit quiet, but things have been a bit hectic.

Firstly, I've only ever bought a postal order once before and if I remember correctly you have to get it made payable to a specific payee, so I need to ring up ghd and see what their exact trading name is before I can send off to get the straigteners back. I don't think I can ring them back on a Sunday so that shall all have to wait until Monday. I think a postal order for a small amount of money costs £1, so that's another £11 to fork out overall *insert rolling eyes smiley here when someone finds out where he's gone*.

Secondly, it was a bad day when I wrote my list of reasons why today is bad. Today is better.

Thirdly, I had a bit of a splurge in the Boots 70% off sale. It wasn't money I had technically put aside for this purpose, but I'm glad I did as the majority of stuff I had bought is for birthday presents for other people during the year, so I will have saved myself a fortune for later on. The vast majority of it was toiletries, so if I don't use them for any reason I can sell them on Ebay (I'm hardly likely to make a loss given how little I paid for them!), or use the girly ones myself (but not likely given how much of my own stuff I have to use up. *Insert yet another rolly-eyed smiley*. I bought a few things for myself, but the best was the No7 Ultimate Collection containing masses of skin care (full-sized cleanser, toner, day cream, night cream, face mask and sample of Protect and Perfect) and make-up in the bottom of the box. Given that I need new moisturiser and toner later this month anyway, it was a steal as the moisturiser in the set is £9.50 and the toner £7.50, which already works out at more than the price of the set. (OK, I would not spend £7.50 on a toner - my current one is Wilkinson's under-a-pound version: needs must etc. - but I would definitely spend WAY more than £9.50 on a moisturiser as some things are just not worth scrimping on.) Plus I got a night cream (I usually just use my normal moisturiser, and this one is another £9.50), which I've wanted for a while and never had before.

Fourthly, despite all my misgivings, I'm doing the nail course: lady in charge is asking around about getting my the NVQ qualification (she's waiting for the lady she asked to get back to her). The main reason why is cos I'm a wuss: a friend of my mum's is also doing the course and the place where we must buy out kits from is far away. She rang the house wanting to know if I wanted her to pick me up a kit when she went to get her own, and I could give her the money later. I didn't get back to her, and had no intentions of until I had made my mind up about the course, but she went and got me one anyway, thinking she was doing me a favour. I felt too bad to tell her I wasn't sure I was doing it, so I've wimpishly decided to take it as divine intervention that I should do the course, even though it cost me £51.88 for the kit, a bit more for some bits which weren't in that kit, £100 for this month's tuition and £20 for a baby's bottle steraliser for the equipment. *Insert another rolly-eyed smiley* (COME BACK ROLLY-EYES!) All I can say is that I'm going to make a killing with this skill, later. I have to.

In other news: 8 of my listed items on Ebay are looking like they will sell later today, including some of the bulkier and more unusual ones, so that will give me a bit more space if they go, as well as money. The most expensive item looking likely to go is the MP3 player, and there are currently 9 watchers, so I'm confident it is likely to go, even if it doesn't go for much more than the starting price. I really need the money as well as I've just totted up what's left to come out of the bank this month, and it's a slight deficit, and that's only including a minimum repayment on my credit card and one tank of petrol. I would hope to put the majority of my Ebay earnings toward to CC, but I also have 2 social engagements, and will need something in my purse for the rest of the month to meet up with friends. I shall see what the Ebay harvest brings home.

I'm on holiday this week, so the job-hunting goes on in earnest. Agency that dealt with the French job has put my CV forward for a few things not including langugages, and I'm going to apply for more things this month. Have heard nothing back yet from work experience placement, and I don't feel hopeful, TBH. I shall wait and see...

And so, dear reader, here is to a pleasant rest-of-weekend, whatever you are doing. x

InaPickle

My 30 Ebay listings came to an end today. I had 4 watchers on a once-used breadmaker and 9 on my old MP3 player, only for neither of them to have so much as a single bid! :mad: I don't know if it has something to do with them finishing late in the day or not, but I've never, ever had so many watchers on an item for it not to have a bid from at least one of the watchers. I'm thoroughly disappointed. I'll have to relist, I guess.

I did sell 2 items inexpensive items, 1 being a new bottle of eye make-up remover (I have loads), which helps toward the 'No buying toiletries etc. until...' challenge.

I realised that my deficit for this month is £10.40. I bought two lovely (but expensive) hand pumps for my course at a total of £10 last week, and it became apparent that I will not need them in the near future, so I am going to return them, so that should sort out the deficit, if little else.

I'm going to relist the items at a reasonable hour, and list some more expensive books on Amazon.

Have spent the day tidying my room, sorting things out, and finishing reading the first books I have finished in an age. I'm about halfway through another one, and a third of the way through a third, so I would be happy if I got through them all this week.

Other aims this week while off:

1) Post Ebay items sold. Buy postal order at same time (after finding exactly to whom it is payable).
1) Job applications (This is urgent as I have had a really horrible day again today. Sod the career, anything will do).
2) Listing Amazon books.
3) Ordering my CD collection (a big task involving a database, which sounds anal, but is really quite necessary).
4) Sorting out my photos
5) The Other Photo Album (long story...)
6) Scrapbooks.

If I get two of the non-essential artsy/organising things done, I will be delighted as they will be quite time consuming, and I've been threatening to do them for literally years.

Nighty-night!

POSITIVE_AND_FOCUSED

Hi Pickle, thank you for all your encouraging words. Remember, you are doing well too, and well done on being prepared for future birthdays etc. Not a bad idea! Take care