can you recommend some good, simple, economical photoediting software?

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

Just that, really. It is my birthday in a couple of weeks and I would like to buy myself something I will really use. I take thousands too many quite a few photos of dd and her friends and I would just like something to improve the photos; crop them, brighten them, blur the distracting background, etc. I used to use Picassa and was very happy with it until the latest upgrade, since when I haven't found it much use. I would like to produce photos that I would enjoy looking at in years to come. I would like to spend less than about £90.

GIMP will definitely do all you need and far more. It's free, so fits one of your criteria, but some people find it quite complicated. Give it a try - nothing to lose when it's free

www.gimp.org/

Adobe Photoshop Elements fits your budget and is pretty powerful.

Am trying gimp (as it is free) ... it is slowly (1 hour) downloading. If I can'tmake it work for me - not a tech wizard - I'll look at Adobe Photoshop. Thank you.

Irfanview is another free program that is often recommended. It is less powerful than GIMP, but has a much simpler interface. It does cut and crop and a range of effects.

Definitely another vote for the GIMP. I'm shite at anything to do with graphics but can use this without too much bother and it avoids the nasty and unnecessary experience of actually paying for software.