little things mean a lot...

especially when those "little things" are expenses that can really add up!

So, I mentioned earlier that "I went a little more into detail than usual," on my Monday Night Money last week. What was this detail? A handy, dandy little thing called PearBudget. Last fall, when I first renewed my resolve to pay better attention to my money, I was searching for something that would help me do that. After downloading a few different budget programs, spreadsheets, etc., I found that PearBudget was just about what I was looking for. It got away from the individual entering of a wealth of information for each and every transaction (name, date, payee, category, memo, etc.), like I had suffered through with Quicken and MS Money in the past. And it got away from the whole balancing-the-checkbook aspect, which had also frustrated me with Quicken and MS Money because if there was one missed statement or one tiny mistake, the whole thing would be ruined and I'd have to start over again. So, I kept up with PearBudget for a while, but experienced a few set-backs that initially led me to drop it: there was still all of the data entry that comes with tracking expenses (just entering dollar amounts in the designated column) and there was the frustration of having a false analysis at the end of previous months when I made adjustments to the budgeted amounts to reflect the needs of the current month (which I solved by saving a new copy of the file each month). Anyway, in December, I dropped it completely and developed my own system- the calendar/ budget worksheets that I refer to occassionally. And, for the most part, the calendar/ budget sheets are sufficient for tracking the bills and regular expenses that occur in our budget. However, they lack the ability to track all of the variable expenses that are at the root of my money problems. And so, I dusted off the PearBudget program last Monday night so that I could take a closer look at all of my variable expenses. Boy! Was it an eye-opener! As of tonight, this month, we have spent:
$300 on household expenses (groceries, cleaning supplies, laundry soap, etc)
$300 on eating out!!! (shock of the century!)
almost $100 on gas for the car (sadly, not a shock, but normal...)
$60 on leisure/ entertainment
$80 in cash (which I still have over $50 of)
and $16 on clothing
That's $856!

I must say, most of this was spent before I did the PearBudget last Monday night and realized what a spendthrift I was being. Some of the eating out was as part of our Spring Break vacation (well, a vacation from cooking, anyway). But just by looking at what's up there, it's obvious that I NEED TO USE A PROGRAM LIKE THIS TO KEEP TRACK OF AND EXAMINE MY VARIABLE EXPENSES!!! So, I'm going to try to keep up with it this month. Guess that's another goal to add to my list!

Now, you may be wondering about this PearBudget program... What is it? How does it work? Where can I get it?
PearBudget is a beautiful Excel file that is really very user friendly. Just follow the tabs at the bottom, beginning with the one labelled, "Start Here". It will walk you through the process of setting up your budget. The other tabs are labeled, one for each month, plus there's an analysis for the end of the year (automatically generated from your monthly worksheets) and an example month. Expenses are divided into 3 basic areas: Regular Expenses, Irregular Expenses and Variable Expenses. Once you get past the "Start Here" page, it's pretty easy. Budgeted amounts are automatically transferred from the "Start" page to the monthly pages. As you enter the amounts spent under the various headings, PearBudget will automatically calculate the "total spent", compare that with the "budgeted" amount, and tell you the "difference". If you go over budget in an area, the "difference" is automatically written in red, so it's easy to see where things are going awry. There is also a column that figures your "total spent" for the month, another column for your "income" and a column that automatically figures out "what's left" for the month. At the bottom of the page is an Analysis section that will take a look at your overall spending for the month. At the end, it gives you a nice "Income vs. Expense Overview" that just sums it all up... letting you know how much you earned, how much you spent, and answers the question, "Did we end up saving anything?" It really is nice. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to track their variable expenses but not wanting to do the math for themselves (again with my hating of the math!). PearBudget does everything for you! There are now 2 versions of PearBudget. There's the version that I just told you about, which is an Excel spreadsheet that can be used in most spreadsheet programs, and there's a web-based program now that is allegedly better, but costs $3 a month after a free trial (I believe). I say "allegedly" because I don't know. The Excel version of PearBudget really does what I need it to do, so I haven't complicated matters by checking out the new, improved version. Plus, I don't want to check it out, find out that I really do like it better and then try to justify spending $3 a month to use the program (even though that's still substantially cheaper than any other online budgeting/ money-management programs that I've seen out there). Sometimes it's just better to not know what you're missing out on. So, if you love Excel like I do and just want to see a beautiful example of what Excel truly can do at it's best (in my opinion), click here. If you've been searching for a FREE tool to help with budgeting or tracking your expenses, click here. If you've been looking to simplify your money management system from a cumbersome, time-consuming program like Quicken or MS Money, click here. And, if you suffer from multiple personalities and clicked all three of those links, only to realize that they all lead you to the same place, sue me. It's a good program, solving each of those problems... well worth checking out. So, what are you waiting for?


PS- if PearBudget really doesn't work for you and you're still searching for something, click here. There are a bunch of links with something for everyone.