A little known secret about me is that I’m obsessive about money and tracking my finances. I have this little accordion folder with slots for each of the months and envelopes in each slot so I can collect my receipts. At the end of each month, I sit down and total how much I spent on gas, on food, clothes, etc. Now, all this info is available at my bank’s website, but I like doing it by hand and seeing how much I went over (or under) my budget.
This was before Mint.com.
To sign up for the service, I signed up with the passwords from my online bank accounts. Almost instantly, I had my spending habits displayed on the screen in front of me. Like magic, it knew how much I spent on gas that month ($225 – ouch!), clothes, and entertainment. Once I shifted around some of my categories, I got an even better picture of how I was doing financially.
Now I’m one of Mint.com’s biggest fans. You can even compare yourself to others, and they can even search to tell you if you’re getting the best deal on credit card rates. (I discovered that I am not, but I already knew that.)
You can sign up for its e-mail alerts and they can e-mail you when you’re close to going over your budget, or send you financial summaries every Friday to let you know how you’re doing overall. I highly recommend it for young mommies like myself, who are very Internet-savvy but short on time. Mint.com does half the work for you. Who can’t appreciate that?