Caketime!
Andrea is a polymath. That means she knows how to do a lot of things. Like make cookies. Or raise kittens. Or budget.
Andrea just posted a review of PearBudget. She gets it:
think of it as budgeting 2.0- a free service (while it is still in beta, at least) where you can upload all your receipts and compare them to your budget. for the first few months, when you still don’t really understand where your money goes, your preliminary budget will be way off, but as you continue to track all your expenses, you’ll start to see patterns. budgeting is not like dieting in this way- you can’t know what to spend your money on without first knowing where you spend your money, while in dieting someone can just tell you what you should eat. you’re going to first need to track all your expenses. i teach a personal finance class and i always tell people to keep a little plastic bag in their purse/coat pocket (winter is the best time to try this out!) and stuff all their receipts into it- then, at the end of the week, you can enter it all into PearBudget. it is amazing what you find out about yourself- i already knew i ate a lot, but this really confirmed it!
That’s a good idea for holding on to your receipts — a plastic pouch or Ziploc bag is a good call. Mine usually end up as a crumpled wad.
One thing I want to point out: She notes that “it is amazing what you find out about yourself.” It really is. But one of the things we find is that that realization — and the lessons you learn about yourself — come when you spend a little bit of time with your receipts. Not much. But 10 minutes or so with your receipts each week helps you see all kinds of patterns that you might otherwise miss.
We’re pretty excited that Andrea gives it her seal of approval. Thank you, Andrea! We’re honored to be your new budgeting partner! See you soon!
