Financial times are tough, people! The Great Recession has definitely taken its toll on my family. Jeff and I have watched our incomes shrink little by little and our expenses grow and grow. Jeff took a pay cut for his current job (left a company going bankrupt for a more stable company) and I, as a public schoolteacher, am facing furloughs because of extreme state education budget cuts (Love you California, always thinking ahead to what's best for your people!). We've had to make some tough choices and learn to STRICTLY follow a budget. We've always "sort of" followed a budget but now there's no choice. I've always done our budget via an Excel spreadsheet, but just discovered something that is infinitely better: Pear Budget!
For the last month, I have been entering all of our expenses via the Pear Budget system. Oh my! It's been VERY enlightening. Things do add up. All the little things - gifts, lunches out, entertaining, impulse buys at the grocery store - are no longer little when you combine them. I've realized that are certain expenses we need to cut and other expenses we have to carefully consider.
With Pear Budget, you first create a budget under the tab "PLAN". They have recommended categories but you can also easily create your own, as well as go back and edit as you need to. Then, you enter each expense as it occurs under the tab "ENTER". You can do this from memory (dangerously inaccurate for me!) or you can save your receipts. Since I have had more free time this month, I've been able to enter my receipts in every day. But I anticipate that I will have to just create a little box for receipts to go in as the week progresses and define a time for receipt-entering once a week. Then, most importantly, you can click on tab "REVIEW" and see your up-to-date monthly budget! Wowza! It shows you the categories where you are over-spending and "extra" money you may have. You can even figure out how to budget in non-monthly expenses, such as home maintenance, Christmas presents, etc. And man, do I realize I need this.
Here's the website: Pear Budget The first month is free. And, no, I've not been paid to talk them up. If you know of a better system, let me know... I'm all ears.
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