Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Mmmmmm ... pears.

All the time I spend reading blogs has finally paid off! (Pun intended. O.P.J. to my family ... awww, yeah.)

Occasionally when I read comments on other people's blogs, I will click on the person's name just to see where it takes me. The other day I randomly did so and it took me to The PearBudget. Now I have been wanting to find a good budget program for a long time. I've tried Money and Quicken. They are too complicated and too much for my needs. I've tried creating my own budget program, but couldn't figure out how to make it cumulative. I tried not budgeting at all but that seemed dangerous. So I decided the PearBudget was worth a shot.

It's GREAT!

Here are some good things about the PearBudget:

1. Free.
2. Downloads in a flash.
3. Easy to understand and simple to use.
4. Allows you to manage your money so well you can buy an iPhone.
5. Is compatible with your new iPhone!

The only thing I've found so far that I don't understand is the name. I'm sure there's a perfectly logical (and probably clever) explanation for naming it after a piece of fruit, but I've yet to figure it out.

Does you have a budget program you'd recommend?
If not, try this one! And let me know what you think.

4 comments:

charliepark said...

Becky -

Thanks for the kind words. Regarding the name ... When I first built it, it was becoming a behemoth of a program. Very complex. Expansive. Confusing. Very much like Quicken and Microsoft Money.

I realized that what I needed was a *simple* budgeting tool. So I pared (ta da!) it down to the essentials. At the time, I was working at a branding company, and I thought PearBudget would be a nice, friendly name for a budgeting tool. People are often terrified of budgeting, or they feel guilty about having not budgeted. But who's terrified of pears? Who feels guilty about fruit (apart from that whole Eden thing)? ... So that's the origin of the name.

Thanks again for your encouragement!

Gail said...

i don't want an iphone, how about a couple cashmere sweaters from jcrew

Anonymous said...

I got named in your blogroll! Thank you!

I've actually used the PearBudget program before, and I like the combination of ease and power.

Now if it just had some sort of built-in accountability partner I'd be set!

Anonymous said...

We took a 13-week course called Financial Peace University that absolutely transformed our financial lives. We cut up our credit cards in March and haven't needed them since. (I think this is more about God's response to our obedience to him and his provision than our budgeting). We run on a 2 week CASH ONLY budget. Each pay period we have every penny budgeted and we pull the appropriate cash out. When it's gone, it's gone. I have $41 left to spend on food for the next week. Needless to say, it's going to be tight, but that's just the way it is. It's been AWESOME for us. If you want to know more, let me know.

Carolyn