Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

foxgloves

@PennysIntoPounds - I agree. Line-dried washing isn't just free (our favourite 4-lettered word), it does smell lovely & fresh afterwards, especially bed linen. I even enjoy the activity of pegging it all out. It's something I usually like to do early in the morning so it's often just me, birdsong & the frogs.

@ladyholly - It was such a silly noisy spat, I don't think they'd be too happy to have to listen to him! He's quite feisty with other cats though he still lives in fear of all humans except for us. He still can't usually even stay in the house if we have visitors & just a knock at the front door is often enough to have him make a dash for his cat flap. He's the one who was living rough as an unneutered stray before the Rescue trapped him & brought him inside, so I suppose it's still down to the experiences he had before that which have left him so frightened of people - a bit like you were explaining recently with your Bear, we don't know their situation before, & can only try & work it out from their behaviour. 
f

foxgloves

Afternoon Sunbeams,
A quick one from me, then I shall be more than happy to sign off & stop looking at screens for the day.
Today has been my Big Budget Day, so I have been ensconced up in Foxgloves HQ number-crunching. Reconciled March's budget - nothing untoward there apart from an £8 overspend on the grocery budget. This was down to all the extra cat food we bought to make use of a couple of good offers, so I am not worried about that, although it'd have been nice to have a little surplus to ping over to the Savings Pots. 
Have set April's budget. Nothing too expensive hoving into view, but I have increased our grocery budget a little as we shall doubtless want a few Easter & birthday goodies. I'd rather increase it & be realistic than set a strict figure we are likely to overshoot, then have to find the overspend from somewhere else. There were a couple of veggie garden revamp expenses to include this month, but I've still managed to send just shy of £300 to the Savings Pots (divided between 6 of them). As there are the 2 aforementioned items to pay for, which would have been from the House & Garden Pot, I haven't paid this Pot this month as felt that would mean it taking more than its share. I've also paid into our general savings as usual - that's the Regular Saver, Car Fund (for vehicle replacement, not maintenance expenses as we have a Savings Pot for that) & Premium Bonds.
I must say that I find the automatic Co-pilot addition to our Microsoft package a real pestilence. Mr F is going to try to find a way to disable it. I am having to keep a very close eye on my budget spreadsheets because sometimes my updates get saved & other times they don't & while I have been able (so far) to find the changed version via a different route, this shouldn't be a 'thing', as of course multiple spreadsheets defy the purpose of accurate current figures. I don't like things which are random. On asking, 'Why is this happening?', I like to be able to find a reason I can address, & this logical approach isn't possible with random AI actions. It only happens on the shared access spreadsheet, which is why it can only be Co-pilot. 
I digress, well sort of.....wasting time on this was part of my budget session after all.
Other stuff:
*A big financial filing session.
*Made a sourdough for baking tomorrow.
*Watered all my greenhouse plant babies & gave them some seaweed for breakfast.
*Wrote grocery shopping list - Mr F was raring to go this morning, not just because the supermarket's free coffee machine has been repaired but because he reckoned he was going to try & use all this week's vouchers. 
*Tweaked tonight's nosebag as decided our planned meal was too similar to last night's, so have defrosted the box of falafel I made the other week & will use the last of the ancient bulghur to make a veggie pilaf, & probably open a new jar of home made chutney to go with them.
No more tasks planned for today apart from that little bit of cooking, so shall get signed out & head for our sunny bench for a couple of chapters of my book.
Still nothing from the solicitor. This either means that my unverified birth certificate was not considered a problem, as my other docs were officially verified .....or they haven't got around to looking at it yet, in which case they are dragging their feet. I guess time will tell.
F x

AnotherNewDay

foxgloves said:

Afternoon Sunbeams,
A quick one from me, then I shall be more than happy to sign off & stop looking at screens for the day.
Today has been my Big Budget Day, so I have been ensconced up in Foxgloves HQ number-crunching. Reconciled March's budget - nothing untoward there apart from an £8 overspend on the grocery budget. This was down to all the extra cat food we bought to make use of a couple of good offers, so I am not worried about that, although it'd have been nice to have a little surplus to ping over to the Savings Pots. 
Have set April's budget. Nothing too expensive hoving into view, but I have increased our grocery budget a little as we shall doubtless want a few Easter & birthday goodies. I'd rather increase it & be realistic than set a strict figure we are likely to overshoot, then have to find the overspend from somewhere else. There were a couple of veggie garden revamp expenses to include this month, but I've still managed to send just shy of £300 to the Savings Pots (divided between 6 of them). As there are the 2 aforementioned items to pay for, which would have been from the House & Garden Pot, I haven't paid this Pot this month as felt that would mean it taking more than its share. I've also paid into our general savings as usual - that's the Regular Saver, Car Fund (for vehicle replacement, not maintenance expenses as we have a Savings Pot for that) & Premium Bonds.
I must say that I find the automatic Co-pilot addition to our Microsoft package a real pestilence. Mr F is going to try to find a way to disable it. I am having to keep a very close eye on my budget spreadsheets because sometimes my updates get saved & other times they don't & while I have been able (so far) to find the changed version via a different route, this shouldn't be a 'thing', as of course multiple spreadsheets defy the purpose of accurate current figures. I don't like things which are random. On asking, 'Why is this happening?', I like to be able to find a reason I can address, & this logical approach isn't possible with random AI actions. It only happens on the shared access spreadsheet, which is why it can only be Co-pilot. 
I digress, well sort of.....wasting time on this was part of my budget session after all.
Other stuff:
*A big financial filing session.
*Made a sourdough for baking tomorrow.
*Watered all my greenhouse plant babies & gave them some seaweed for breakfast.
*Wrote grocery shopping list - Mr F was raring to go this morning, not just because the supermarket's free coffee machine has been repaired but because he reckoned he was going to try & use all this week's vouchers. 
*Tweaked tonight's nosebag as decided our planned meal was too similar to last night's, so have defrosted the box of falafel I made the other week & will use the last of the ancient bulghur to make a veggie pilaf, & probably open a new jar of home made chutney to go with them.
No more tasks planned for today apart from that little bit of cooking, so shall get signed out & head for our sunny bench for a couple of chapters of my book.
Still nothing from the solicitor. This either means that my unverified birth certificate was not considered a problem, as my other docs were officially verified .....or they haven't got around to looking at it yet, in which case they are dragging their feet. I guess time will tell.
F x

@foxgloves - if the AI is unwanted have you tried to revert to "classic" https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2025/02/microsoft-365-price-hike/ 

foxgloves

@AnotherNewDay - Thanks for that link. We are not on one of those plans & haven't had a price increase, but there was another link contained in the text to MS's own instructions for disabling Co-pilot, so we'll be onto that this weekend. I don't need AI to 'help me write a letter' & I certainly don't appreciate it randomly messing up my Excel spreadsheets! 
It'll be interesting to see how straightforward it turns out to be to disable it - I expect plenty of people are doing so though.
Cheers,
F

Suffolk_lass

For most things now, I use Google Drive with free use of sheets, docs, slides and forms (and 10gb of space) - just don't ever use the share button top right as it shares with the world. Ise the three dots to the right and then choose share and add the email of the people. 

foxgloves

@Suffolk_lass - My main objection is being the paying customer, but having no choice but to accept the AI additions. Well, I say 'no choice', I mean that it is the default setting, but we will have a good attempt at removing it over the weekend. Mr F worried that the random interference with spreadsheet-saving might adversely affect his Personal Spends so is feeling doubly motivated!
F

foxgloves

Morning Daffodils,
Not as warm as yesterday, as big clouds keep passing over, but it's still mostly sunny & pleasant. I got off to a nice early start this morning with the intention of having an afternoon of leisure. Budget-friendly efforts so far:
*Home care: Vacuumed all of downstairs, cleaned kitchen & bathroom, emptied bins & changed towels & kitchen linens. Usual minimal products & washable cloths.
*Checked the plant babies. The aubergines are still a bit sniffy about having their bottle cloches removed, but tough banana because as soon as we move into April, & having seen those better temperatures next week, they will be off to the greenhouse.
*Updated grocery budget. Think we now only need to buy some coleslaw, so Week 1 of the new budget cycle should come in under target.
*Did a couple more surveys. A few payments arrived plus a bonus £1.25, putting my PA March earnings over my £40 monthly target. 
*Added a few titles to my ongoing library wish list. 
*Not my cooking night. Mr F is making baked salmon fillets with Crank's macro-rice. I have been making that easy-peasy rice recipe since I first bought the book in the 1980s! Tasty, cheap & I also like it cold in a salad box with interesting bits & piece added to it. Btw, the veggie bulghur & leftover home made falafels went down well last night. Mr F popped a spare one in with his packed lunch & said he'd be more than happy to eat that meal again. As the falafels are easy & cheap to make & my veggie bulghur is very flexible for rounding up various use-it-up veg, it's something I am pleased to have on the menu more frequently.
Am expecting a delivery of some plants today but haven't had any further comms. Checked back to the original order confirmation & it says, "Delivered around Fri 28th" which sounds more vague than I'd like. I am thinking this could well mean 'Saturday' when we were planning to go out so shall be prepared to leave instructions where to leave them. We are used to this from Mr F's parcels. Even when he receives an email saying, "Your parcel will be delivered on Monday", they invariably turn up early on the Saturday. Ah well, it's a very tiny thing against the world backdrop of megalomania & strife, so I shall just be pleased to see them & happy they were at a discounted price.
And after a final check for surveys, I shall sign out & begin my (early!) afternoon of leisure! Currently reading 'Caledonian Road', which I'm enjoying but it's the size of a breeze block, so more reading time defo needed. Managed to get another couple of clues on the Saturday Guardian crossword last night so might have another look at that. Might resurrect the nocturne I told myself I was going to learn properly this year. Who knows? But I have defo finished with jobs for the day.
Hope there's some sunshine where you are,
Love F x

Makingabobor2

Very productive, and only half a day gone so far. Enjoy your book. 
what exactly is the macro rice? 

rtandon27

@foxgloves - for Excel in particular, you can turn off c0-pilot by doing the following...

In Excel, go to File > Options > Copilot and clear the "Enable Copilot" checkbox. Then, select "OK" and restart Excel for the changes to take effect.

Also...

In Microsoft Word, go to File > Options > Copilot, and then uncheck the "Enable Copilot" checkbox.
 
Part of my job is assisting work folks with their tech, so please do tag me or message if you find yourself struggling with it!  Happy to jump on the forum and attempt to be of assistance 😘  Nothing worse than wasting oodles of time & being frustrated!!!

Sunshine_girl2

rtandon27 said:

@foxgloves - for Excel in particular, you can turn off c0-pilot by doing the following...

In Excel, go to File > Options > Copilot and clear the "Enable Copilot" checkbox. Then, select "OK" and restart Excel for the changes to take effect.

Also...

In Microsoft Word, go to File > Options > Copilot, and then uncheck the "Enable Copilot" checkbox.
 
Part of my job is assisting work folks with their tech, so please do tag me or message if you find yourself struggling with it!  Happy to jump on the forum and attempt to be of assistance 😘  Nothing worse than wasting oodles of time & being frustrated!!!

Thanks for the above very helpful.