Monday, January 26, 2009

Regarding Resolutions

Resolution #4: Put money in savings each month

I've recently discovered Mint.com, a personal finance management website. After setting up a free account, I put in my online log-in and password for my bank and my credit card. The site can then access my transactions (a little scary, but this IS a reputable site).

Their software categorizes each expenditure - grocery, gas, bills/utilities, entertainment, food/dining, and so on. It displays it in a pie chart to show where all your money goes each month. From there, you can set monthly budgets for each category, and Mint keeps a running tally of each. You can compare your spending to cities, states, or the national average.

Personally, I've always kept a close eye on my totals, but I no longer break it into budgeted categories. I think it's going to be really helpful to have a running total of how much I've spent in the different areas.

Discoveries: for the month of January, I've spent a lot on car repair, booze, and Roger.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah I heart Mint.com also, too bad it doesn't include every known type of account. But Mint is "Mint" for a free service.

Anonymous said...

wow. how interesting/creepy!

Orange Pattern said...

Not only am I behind on MY blogging, I'm even behind on checking OUT my favorite blogs.

This sounds awesome. And I've never heard of it. Thanks for the tip...