Pear Budget

Most likely, as with everything, I am behind times in knowing this. However, last night, my friend Courtney at CrossFit DFW introduced me to a budgeting website that I am already just loving! 


The site is called PearBudget.com and brace yourselves: it is awesome. The website tagline is "Really Simple Budgeting" and you know what word I love? Duh, it's 'SIMPLE'! Yep, call me a simpleton if you wish, but I love how stinkin' easy this site makes it to budget and keep track of all of our many "ins" and "outs"! 


Over the past few months, I have tried to use the online money-tracker system my bank offers and even create my own excel budgeting system to help us stay on track. All of which have ended up overwhelming me and failing miserably. (Let's be honest....I didn't really pay THAT good of attention in my college INFO 229 class, so it is to no surprise that my self-made budgets are lacking in simplicity and more importantly...efficacy). 


Enter: Pear Budget. This bomb.com website allows you to plan your expenses,  and track them against what you actually spend. It is clean, simple and safe (does not link to any account - everything is entered manually by the user). The greatest thing about Pear Budget is that you can split your expenses into so many specific categories, which is extremely helpful. Like my friend Courtney told me - think about a receipt from Target. In one trip you could have purchased groceries, medicine, clothes, and household items such as cleaning supplies. Looking at "Target" on your bank statement is not a very specified way of tracking how that money was truly spent. Pear Budget knew that you were having this problem and allows you to enter and categorize your receipts, tracking every penny that trickles in and every one that flies ever so quickly out the door. The best part of it all: Pear Budget does all the hard number-crunching, formula calculating for you. SCORE!


You can do a 30-day trial for free and if you sign up before January 20, 2011 - it is only $3.00/month. After that, it is $4.95/month which is totally worth it for the time it saves you. Remember, time=money. So, you do the math on that hard equation :)


YAHOOOO for 'simpleton' budgeting!