Financial Happiness

My husband and I have always struggled with sticking to our budget.  We aren't the crazy overboarders who don't budget, but it seems like more often than not by the end of the month we're $40 over here, $5 over there.... and over the course of a year an extra $50-$100 off your monthly budget really adds up!  We've tried SO MANY different ways to try and make sure we stick to our budget.  Some of the ways have been:

-texting each other every single time we spend money.  then inputting it that evening into a spreadsheet.
-saving our receipts and handing them in at the end of the week
-only using a credit card so we can see exactly what/where we've spend our money and pay it off at the end of the month

all of these were good ideas but they each had their own pros and cons that we fell victim too.  Now that we're in grad school and on an even tighter budget, the A-game has been upped a little.  our goal for 2010 was to find ways to cut our budget (more posts will come later about cost-cutting ideas) AND to stay within our realistic budget and possibly even save money while in grad school.  Outlandish idea?  I think not.

We started using a program called Mint.com.  You may have seen if you put together your taxes through Turbo Tax.  It's an excellent program that takes every single financial account you have an merges it into one financial game plan.  This includes:

-life insurance
-mutual funds
-stock funds
-credit cards
-loans (auto, equity, school)
-checking/savings
-CD's

you can also personalize it by adding your cars value, the cash you have elsewhere, anything that would help them see your "bottom line."  It's very easy to use, secure and the best part?  it's FREE.

Why use this program?  Well, see, you can set up your monthly goals.  Say, for example, your goal is to only spend $100 a month on entertainment/dining.  You can go into your "goal section" and set that as your limit.  You can also set an "alert" email any time your goal is being inched towards.  So, say you went on a date and spent $75 between dinner and a movie.

The next day, or even that night, when your transaction is posted it will be directly imported to Mint (without you having to do anything) and you will get an email stating "be aware you have almost hit your goal of $100 for entertainment expenses..."  now, you know.. it's February 15th... which means you have $25 for the rest of the month.  It may seem rudimentary, but it is helpful.  Imagine you're grocery shopping and you aren't sure how much you have left.  You can look it up on your phone and see "oh I only have $80 left for the month."  How handy is that?

It's good to know the whole picture.  Keeps you more honest in your budgeting.

The best feature, aside from the email alerts, for me.. is the fact that it breaks down your spending habits and shows you trends... and THEN it gives you advice on how you can save money based on your trends.  Awesome.  Awesome.

Now, if you are like me, my main financial institution is a local credit union.  Unfortunately, they aren't linked into Mint.com yet (most major banks, and major credit unions are, however).  Luckily, my credit union has a similar program.  So I import the information from my credit union by hand to Mint.com.  It's perfect.

Here is a sample list of institutions that are supported by Mint:

Advanta Bank Corp Community Bank Delavan FNB of Georgia FOP Credit Union Home State Bank K-State FCU (Federal Credit Union) MassMutual FCU (Federal Credit Union) Premier Bank (FL) Private Bank (St. Louis) Public Savings Bank Rappahannock National Bank Signal Financial FCU (Federal Credit Union) Sun FCU (Federal Credit Union) Terasen Gas (CA FTD Test Dest) The People''s Buidling Loan and Savings Company TrustBank Valero FCU (Federal Credit Union) Western Springs National Bank and Trust

If your financial institution is not listed you can request it on Mint.com or go to your providers website many of them have their own program (in Utah: Mountain West Credit Union, Alliance Credit Union, and Zions Bank all have their own, for example).

So, to wrap this LONG post up.  If you have a hard time sticking to your budget, or if budgeting has always seemed overwhelming, or you've just never really taken the time to sit down and work through all your accounts to find your bottom line... MINT.COM is totally worth trying.  It's  FREE, it'll take you less than 30 minutes to set everything up,and it might save some serious bucks in the long run.  What do you have to lose? 

*Imfrugal.blogspot.com is not affiliated with or paid for an endorsement of mint.com.  

It is a personal review intended as advice and not solicitation*