Budgeting

I have read that to pay for a money management system defeats the propose of saving money.
I heartily disagree. To me it is worth the 30 bucks a year to have everything laid out in front of me in pretty colours and all I have to do is just plunk in the numbers from any computer. The website generates the bottom line for me. I can, at a glance, see exactly how much I spent in the month or on any given item. To me it is money management as well as time management. Yes I could develop a spreadsheet at home and spend hours colour coding each expense update it when expenses come in and change it every month. I have done this in the past and it did not work for me.

Mostly my spreadsheet at home didn’t work because it was in one place on one computer. If I were to spend money I would have to:
a . remember the little things I spent money on every day and
b. remember to chart it on the spreadsheet.

With an online system I can log on from anywhere, home, the office, travelling or visiting family members in a different city. That way all of the little items that we really don’t think of until our account is empty are accounted for.

Less stress and less hassle is what I need at this point in my life and if I all I have to do is pay for the assistance then I will use and abuse that assistance. To me peace of mind is worth paying for and ease of application is most definitely worth paying for.

Having an online budgeting system also helps with my minimalistic goals as well. Once I input a bill or a receipt I no longer have to keep that receipt. It frees up so much space in my filing cabinet, wallet, purse, pockets, desk drawers etc.

I have tried out many online budgets and the one that works for me is https://www.pearbudget.com/.

It may be too simple for some but that is what I specifically like about it. The colours and general look of the site is calming, it is uncluttered and has minimal functions. It gives the bottom line on the main page and if you need more detail than you click on a few buttons and it takes you to more answers.

With tracking all of our spending we have discovered how much money we are really spending on certain things like tea in the morning, lunch out at work, dinner out when we are too tired to cook. It also helps to see how much in a year we spend on clothing, camps and other extra curricular activities for my son. This has made us much more conscious of our spending. We know that we can’t eat out every night if we have big payments coming up, like back to school. Before our spending seemed to be the fly by the seat of our pants type and if we had money left at the end on the month we were great. Unfortunately that never happened, always the last week before pay day we would be eating peanut butter because we had no money to spend on real groceries.

A budget is a great thing but only if it is used correctly and everything is tracked. PearBudget is what helped me.