I bought a "belt removal tool" at Autozone for $19.99 and it's saved me hours and countless busted knuckles:
http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBr...%7ENONE%7C%7EB
It's essentially a long flat bar which you can attach half inch square sockets. It comes with three sizes of open end wrench heads and shallow sockets. I like the open end wrench attachments because you can angle them left, right or down and it gives you a lot of leverage.
It takes litterally a few seconds to get belts on and off with it.