I watched a programme the other day about the Amish, and although I don’t want to convert and move to New Holland tomorrow, something I did take away from them, is the concept of a simple life.  Our lives have become to busy, peppered with so many activities and things to do that we we have no time left to enjoy the simple things in life.

Just tonight I experienced yet something else that I did to, supposedly to make my life easier, but it is all just a false economy.  I am tired of doing so, and I am just going to stop.  I know that means that by not doing my research, I will not get the best deal, pay a little extra or be less efficient, but hopefully my life will be a little simpler.

I can see some of you laughing at how possibly these words can be rolling off the tongue of a converted gadget-chick.  I am not saying I am not going to have my gadgets anymore, I am just saying I am going to use some of them differently.

So what proverbially was the straw that broke the camel’s back, you may wonder?  A credit card call centre!

My current credit card has been giving me so much trouble, because the bank was constantly putting it on hold as my “spending pattern as indicated potential fraudulent entries”.  Translated into English, that means they don’t like it when you buy 4 books for your Kindle on Amazon at one time, because apparently that’s what the crooks do to test your card.  Unfortunately they don’t let me know when they have done this until about 24 hours after the block has been made.  At worst, this meant I had to abandon a full trolley of shopping in a supermarket as my credit card wouldn’t go through and I didn’t have another card with me!  Tim’s credit card company at least ring him before putting it on stop to verify the payments made.  Long and short of it is, I did a lot of research to find the best credit card out there, and decided on the John Lewis Partnership card as their service was voted the best out of all credit card companies.

However, I just received my statement today, and apparently I didn’t pay my bill last month.  Aha, that would be because they never received my direct debit form.  To add to insult to injury, they have whacked on a £12 admin fee as a result.  I rung them up immediately asking to set up a direct debit, but the little twerp who answered the phone had such an attitude, I wanted to slap her!  It was one of those “Listen Love, I know you don’t like working in a call centre and doing night shift, but it is your job and let’s just try and be pleasant, shall we?” moments.  To cut a long story short, the whole process took half an hour.  And half an hour I would rather spend lying in a bubble bath, reading a book!

I put down the phone and made a pledge to myself.  I have to simplify things.  I just can’t keep up with the number of balls up in the air.  Something’s gotta give ….