Friday, September 17, 2010

That whole living on a "budget" thing



With every paycheck I get I am trying to become more thrifty, or budget controlled, one might say. The older I get, the more money I seem I have to spend. Pay my own rent? Yup. Pay for my own utilities? Yup. Student loans, unfortunately....yup. Never mind the the other important incidentals of life. No need to list them, we all know them.

So what did I decide to do? Well, at first it was creating the habit of constantly checking my bank account and making sure my work and home calenders were in sync with when bills, loans, and other items were due. I always immediately deduct money from my paycheck and do not even slightly indulge myself with the notion of, "Yay, money! Spend!". It was still easy to spend though. Isn't it always? But now I'm more motivated than ever to really get myself in check!

My friend suggested I start using Mint.com as my free online budget checker/follower/thing that shames me into submission.

This. Is. Awesome.

It works so well for what I need it for and it lets me arrange it very very specifically to my needs. Plus being able to load my bank information, credit cards, investments, and student loans all onto one page makes life so very much easier. I whole heartedly recommend everyone use something like this.

So, who's with me?

2 comments:

  1. I've heard of that site, I'll have to check it out!

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  2. I started back on mint.com after you mentioned it last week! I'd been on it before but it wasn't NEARLY as user-friendly as it is now. It still has the problem I hate where it simply cannot access our Sallie Mae student loans...so I just deleted all student loan accounts [it still tracks the monthly payments leaving the checking or savings accounts] and use mint.com just to track expenses and income [and savings]. I loooove being able to categorize everything and have charts and things!

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