Please go through....

I remember way back when I first left home in my student days I paid for everything by eftpos - often when buying things, even things as small as a packet of chewing gums or a chocolate bar I would often have the words "Please go through, I'm sure there is enough money in there" go through my head as I stood next to the eftpos machine in the supermarket, dairy or wherever.

The money always went through but I was always paranoid I wouldn't have enough money - which I guess is what happens when you are living off such a small amount of money.

However, since I've been working and living off a little more than the $150 a week which was what the government gave me in student loan/allowance (oh plus the $50 that my parents used to give me - thank God for generous parents!) I have not been so worried about the money "not going through".

Anyways, if we fast forward to NOW - I have now had an experience where the money didn't actually go through - how embarrassing!!

I was at New World Metro earlier this week and was buying a few groceries to make dinner, I swiped our "flat" card and plugged in the number and got told by one of the nervous people on the till (a lot of the people there are nervous - most of them are backpackers or travellers I think - one day last week one guy had to ask me twice if the fruit I was buying was mandarins) that my card wouldn't work as it had expired.

My card had expired? What?

Someone higher up the chain of command came across and asked what was wrong and took me to another till and again - the same thing - card expired!!

I did have some of my weekly "spending money" in my purse so I used that to buy the groceries and effectively my card wasn't empty of money - it had just expired. But all the same - I was totally embarrassed!

I went to the post shop to sort out the drama (as our joint account is with kiwibank) and apparently replacement cards had been sent out to replace the now expired ones - but then we moved and didn't tell the bank. Oh Dear.

So now I am waiting for my new card to be delivery so I can buy groceries again without fear of being told I am expired.