The One With The Budget

Before I actually had my own blog - I was a blog stalker. I've been reading Pearls of Wit for a few weeks now (thanks for the suggestion Dawson) and today she had something amazing. I've already signed up, and organized it all so I can say for sure...this thing is genious. Mint must have been created by a. a billionaire computer whiz or b. a broke computer whiz. It catalogs all of your purchases (you give the website your banking information) and breaks them up into catagories. You can create a budget for each of these catagories, and attempt to stick to it. It even makes a pie chart of what you spend where. I even inputted the information for my 401k. I'm going to be trying to stick with this (it sends me emails if I go over budget, those I am dreading) and hopefully it'll keep all of my finances in order. Finances are the bain of my existence, why I am not a billionaire I do not know. Apparently Mint is going to make it easy though. So far I have learned...

a. My rent and utilities are a HUGE portion of my paycheck, bummer.

b. I go out A LOT, on Mint I have to split it up into "Food and Dining" (food...and dining) and "Going Out" (basically any alcohol related activity) to make myself feel better about it.

c. I am poor. I need to quit going to The Summit, immediately.

d. Apartments are pricey (not just the rent) - it costs a small fortune just to make it livable. Target and I have gotten to be great friends.

So - because I obviously have all of my financial ducks in a row, I'm suggesting that you use this lovely little contraption to get yours that way too. Hopefully this will be in lieu of the Dave Ramsey seminar my dad wanted to send me too, he got a little ornery after mom started telling him how much I was spending out in Texas...oops.


**UPDATE: Mint.com officially has an iPhone app, I'm downloading it now.