While the budgeteers of yesteryear kept track of their daily spending by doling out cash in envelopes and keeping receipts to manually enter in excel spreadsheets, you my friend, are living in the modern age. Enter: Mint.com.
Let me introduce you to Mint, a wonderful app of technology and actually totally unrelated name-wise to my blog. Heck, they're not even paying me. It's that handy dandy.
But first, why must we be so anal in our accounting practices? Well, dear friend, this post should probably be written by my hunky man husband, rather than myself. He actually did have an excel spreadsheet before he learned of Mint from another type-A husband.
Transparency moment: I'm not very good, nor do I enjoy, keeping track of my daily (or weekly, or monthly) spending. I would rather floss than monitor spending, and I do not like flossing.
But anyhoo, if you want to be rich someday, you need some oversight and personal accountability in your bank account. Mint will do that, and it doesn't even have a nagging tone of voice. It's simply cold, heartless, and helpful.
How does it do it? Mint is backed by Intuit, a well-known financial software company. To use the helpful budget tracking of Mint, you'll be entering your information through their secure system. To ease your worry, know that Mint stores your data with the same high-level security as a bank. Read more here if you want to learn more about the safety of your information.
Five Things I Love About Mint
The Big Picture View
After you set up Mint, you'll be able to see your total cash available, total credit debt, monthly budget, and spending breakdown all in one place. Awesome blossom. It's like a tip-top-treehouse view of your neighborhood. This is a particularly helpful view, especially if you're toting around multiple credit cards and have multiple bank accounts.
A Visual Budget Tracker
You'll set certain budgets for the month (gas money, phone bill, utilities, restaurants, groceries, coffee shops, everything else, and so on). As the month goes on, Mint tracks your spending (remember, it's tied to your bank accounts and credit cards) and the budget bars will turn colors like a traffic light: Green, yellow, then red as you hit your month's budget limit.
It's Easy
I check Mint every few days, but it doesn't require me to do much work. Every time you swipe a card, Mint sorts the purchase into your budgets automatically, so a $4.50 Starbucks purchase drops into my coffee budget (set at $20-a-month, now down to $15.50 remaining). Some of the purchase drops need a little tweaking, especially if you're just starting Mint, but they're easy to sort and the app "remembers" any resorting for future reference.
It's Nonjudgmental
If I go over my budget, Mint doesn't ring alarm bells or send push notifications to my iPhone. It just goes over, there's no hard stop. It doesn't give me gold stars for saving or seven lashes for spending too much on restaurants (again, oh-so-guilty). It just keeps track silently and meticulously. Sure, there's an advice section, but I choose to read it and it's not too pushy. Thanks Mint, you can hang out with me anytime.
It's Empowering
You will know where your money goes. No more arriving at the end of the month with empty pockets, scratching your head and trying to recount the resting place of your hard-earned dollars. Plus, it's great for decision making. Should you go out to eat tonight? Check Mint. You've only spend $20 on restaurants this month and it's the 27th? Go for it.
Ok, and one more, just for kicks and giggles. It makes the beginning of the month way more fun. Every first day of the month, it's a blank slate all over again!
Now go and sign up for Mint. Once you see your finances, you'll be able to control them with a Midas touch.