A time for change

I've got 1 concrete New Year's resolution...

I'm going to try my hardest to avoid using the coinstar.

Last year poor financial management meant i faced humiliation on a regular basis at the hands of this awful machine.

For those not in the know, this is a machine which changes your coins for a cash voucher and charges a small comission fee. Not content with taking 8.9p in every pound however, it also requires you to trade in your dignity.

The ASDA machine used to be tucked away in the corner. This was fine. The risk of being seen was minimal, you could be a scunner without the shame. It was like closing the curtains and eating a tin of corned beef.
One day i turned up with a pringles tube full of coins, only much to my horror the machine was now located right in the middle of the entrance. Public shame. Dire.

But the embarassment doesn't stop there. When you go through the instructions on screen it beeps loud as fuck every time you press next. The worst aspect by far though is the introduction of an unbearable soundbite which plays once your money has been counted. For some reason it was deemed necessary to have some bloke say "cher ching!" in a ridiculously smug tone. Almost as if mocking you. It might as well go the whole hog and say "don't spend it all at once"

My last visit was a real eye opener. I arrived to find the machine in use and had to linger in the entrance area pretending to be interested in the special offers while some guy with a hold-all full of coins made a deposit. 10 minutes passed and still i could hear the rattle of coins. The guy now had an audience as the greeter had become enthralled in the action and was now coming out with encouraging slogans like "go on" and "he's on for the record" this went on for longer than i'd of liked but all i could do was clutch a Shrek DVD and peer over out the corner of my eye.

Eventually the situation came to a head when i heard the fateful "cher ching" and the Greeter proudly announce a grand total of £75 something or other.

That'd be a hard act to follow on the best of days and i was left feeling an even deeper sense of shame when my pringles tube yeilded a paltry £7.58.

What i saw that day has inspired me in more ways than one. I reckon i can break the £100 barrier and the longer i save the less frequent the humiliation.

2011 will be my year.