Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Makingabobor2

Is it ok to put strawberry runners out yet? Or is it still too early? My strawberry plants are still on DR window overnight with bubble wrap and hardened off outside in day

foxgloves

Not sure what the official line is on strawberry runners, @Makingabobor2, but my new ones went straight out & the first half of the order which arrived last week have sat through 2 recent frosts. They are in a wooden 3-tiered trough planter which is positioned up against the shed so maybe a bit of shelter. However, my previous strawberry plants were always left out all winter. I only used to put any new potted up runners in the cold frame until Spring. 
F x

foxgloves

@badmemory - Yes, the newly arrived tech problem is certainly annoying. It is apparently a 'thing' that there can be a conflict between updated version of MS & Google Onedrive when saving things. It causes multiple file unnecessary file savings which it seems impossible to limit or delete. Well, we can delete them, but next time we look, they have all reappeared. We have, however, found a viable way to carry on using our spreadsheets so I'll stick to that (or find a big hammer).
F

Makingabobor2

foxgloves said:

Not sure what the official line is on strawberry runners, @Makingabobor2, but my new ones went straight out & the first half of the order which arrived last week have sat through 2 recent frosts. They are in a wooden 3-tiered trough planter which is positioned up against the shed so maybe a bit of shelter. However, my previous strawberry plants were always left out all winter. I only used to put any new potted up runners in the cold frame until Spring. 
F x

Thanks, I'll try & get mine out in next couple of days. I did leave some out over winter, covered in leaves to protect them

Cara_

Mr F raised the issue of whether we want to continue paying an annual MS subscription if we are having to 'work around' things rather than use them to our advantage so he intends to research basic free packages in good time before next renewal date.

I have Office Home 2024 which I bought for a one off payment of £120. Once activated, it is held in your MS account, so if you buy a new laptop you can download it. I haven't had any issues with it with and Google Drive. It is also updated every so often. 

You might be aware of this package and have discounted but I thought i would mention it in case it was useful / you can't find a free resource that you like.

weenancyinAmerica

Apparently we here in the United States are having that problem too. I usually make a backup everyday for my family history files that I change but I can't delete the previous copies I have done. It makes me very angry with Microsoft - like they are trying to force everyone into one of their packages. So I like them less every day.

DawnW

You might want to look at Apache Open Office which is a free download. I have used it for years. I don't know re potential conflicts with Google Onedrive though!

badmemory

I'm not a big fan of Google either since they bought Fitbit.  I made the mistake of buying the new charge6.  Only to discover that unlike the others it won't work on a computer it needs a pad, so bought one of those.  It wasn't too bad at first then they did an update.  Now it needs uninstalling & reinstalling at least every 3 days & is permenantly in recovery.  Can you tell it is driving me mad.  I have a nasty feeling that if I join & pay every month it will miraculously work properly.

foxgloves

Thanks for all your comments on the tech thing. It is actually MS Onedrive with which the updated version of MS has a functional conflict of interest, not Google. We have found a workable solution but @weenancyinAmerica, YES, that's a big part of it. Everytime anything is updated & saved, it is saved as an additional copy, so it isn't unusual to have a dozen versions of a single spreadsheet...just ridiculous when I just require one up-tp-date one. It doesn't appear possible to delete them.....even if they appear to have gone, having been deleted individually, they reappear. I'm also big on genealogy & while I have no big ongoing research projects underway atm, it will drive me mad if a new version appears every time I edit a detailed document. 
@badmemory - I gave up on the fitness brand you mention. My tracker wasn't that old but barely held its charge for a day. It stopped working with anything else so I asked for an alternative brand one for my birthday last year, with which I'm getting on very well.
Mr F will enjoy looking at alternative tech packages. I'm just pleased I opened a spreadsheet this morning & found that it contained the correct, updated information.
F

foxgloves

Anyway, onto today's post. I've had quite a gentle day today & a light diet, as last night, I felt sure I was heading for a flare-up (I have an IBD) but so far, things seem to have calmed down & I don't feel remotely bad about taking it easy.
In budget-friendly news.....
*Not a no-spend day but only ordered deodorant refills.
*Grocery shopping arrived so all put away - we had a £10 off voucher for a minimum £75 online shop so took the opportunity to stock up on a few things, esp at good prices, such as sourdough crumpets, whivh freeze well.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Feels like a free meal tonight as Mr F is having cheesy roast veg (which I prepped yesterday from my use-it-up veg roundup) & I'll probably have a jacket potato as am keeping to simple eating today.
*The solicitor has paid my inheritance into our bank account. It was there this morning. Apart from using a small amount of it to pay for our veg plot revamp, I intend to leave the rest in situe until we've had our extra-ordinary Easter money summit. It is destined for various of our savings, but which & how much is up for discussion. I have some ideas though.
*Checked interest payments on my online saver & our joint savings account. My online saver contains our Emergency Fund & the Car Fund. Since having our Savings Pots & a solid budget, we haven't had to make any dips into our EF so I intend to add that interest to the Car Fund. The joint savings account holds our Savings Pots, so the interest on that will simply be allocated to those.
*Now that the missing half of the strawberry runners order has arrived, I paid the transaction off my CC & was just about to take it from April's buffer zone when I spotted that I'd actually included them in the budget in their own right so that's £30 which gets to fight another day!
Enjoying latest 2 books (one audio) which takes my 2025 reading challenge up to 20 - the last one being a doostop of a thing (though v good) has rather put me behind, but I shall be making up for it with the new Alan Bennett, which is only novella length.
Soot was an absolute MENACE when I was taking in the grocery delivery & putting it away. Under my feet every step I took, meowing for anything, even a box of cereal & bag of self-raising, in & out of the pantry looking for the bag of cat biscuits I moved. Then he disappeared....
... until I bent over to slide a big 40-box of cat meat into the cat cupboard & there were 2 big green eyes staring at me from right at the back. He was very reluctant to come out....I suppose being shut in the cat food cupboard where he can't be viewed is actually pretty high up on his bucket list!
F x