Living Simply: Budgeting with Mint.com

 

  

I've been a member of Mint.com for at least 5 years and yet I've barely been scraping the surface of it's usefulness.  Recently my more-enlightened sister started telling me how she and her husband use it to budget.  A budget is something I've always strived for but have never been very successful at.  I listened to Dave Ramsey, I knew it was important, but still our money just went out without any real analysis or discipline.  But, that's all changed, now that I'm using Mint correctly.   

Here's the key: 

BUDGET EVERYTHING.  

Every dollar needs to be accounted for.  That means all bills: electricity, phone, student loans, credit cards, auto payment, all of those fixed monthly expenses.  Additionally, budget all of the "variable" items: gas, food, and, shopping.  

I use my "shopping" category as kind of a catch-all category.  Mint includes some automatic sub-categories of shopping like hobbies and clothing but to keep track of Ryan's expenses while in AIT, I created a new sub-category so all of those little shoppette runs could be tracked.  By giving shopping an overall budget but also budgeting subcategories, I'm able to get a more specific picture of where the money is going during the month.  

LOG IN.

Now comes the fun part: you have to actually log in every few days to make sure every expense is being categorized correctly.  Recently I had a pharmacy purchased listed as "Macy's" and clothing.  No idea how that happened but that's why I love the "details" category.  Typically lists who the store is with location information.

It actually becomes kind of a fun task, going in every few days, relabeling transactions and checking on your money. 

The biggest change for me is that it motivates me to NOT spend.  I see those budget lines grow and it's a great visual reminder that money is not limitless and there's an end.  I purchase more thoughtfully now. 

You also want to enter an amount of "income" and then make sure those transactions are labeled correctly. It's a number you enter so if you have variable income, you can just estimate.  Including income allows you to see what, if any, is left over after all of the budgeted items.  It gives you a more complete picture while doing the math for you. 

Finally, you can exclude transactions from Mint.  This has been crucial for certain transactions.  For example, if I get birthday money, I don't want it included as "income" because that will throw my monthly budget off.  I just keep track of the amount and what I spend it on and exclude all of the relevant transactions.

MOTIVATING.

Budgeting this way has helped me feel much more in control of our finances.  No more scribbling budget items on paper only to never keep track of what actually happens.  Now everything is tracked automatically and easily viewed as money is spent. 

I recommend everyone utilize Mint.com.  There's so much you can do with it.  Budgeting is only one aspect, but for me it's been the key. 

~Laura