Since becoming a one income family in early spring we have been watching money very tightly. \u00a0We were very fortunate before making the decision to just spend(within reason) and not worry too much about what was spent. \u00a0Luckily for us both of us have always been savers and very money frugal in general. \u00a0Saying that though we never had budgets and never really had a good understanding where our money went.<\/p>\n
Things have changed since moving to a one income household. \u00a0Now using the help of mint.com and running my own spreadsheet I track every penny that we use and what it is used for. \u00a0I really like how mint.com works in most respects but do have some complaints:<\/p>\n
1. \u00a0If you set up budgets and you have an expense happen that isn’t in your budget it lumps it into an other expense and doesn’t include that in your monthly total expenses\/income. This is why I keep my own spreadsheet also.<\/p>\n
2. \u00a0We have had several items that keep showing up as pending even though they aren’t pending in our accounts. \u00a0Mint’s solution to this just delete them. \u00a0Why should I have to where are these coming from are other items incorrect?<\/p>\n
3. \u00a0Including credit cards in mint. \u00a0If you are like us and pay most things via online bill pay but would like to see the transactions that may not have been paid yet on your credit card. \u00a0Mint can do this but you have to be very careful to make sure you don’t double count them in your transactions.<\/p>\n
Other things besides mint.com have been subscribing to coupon feeds such as Hip2Save.com, among others. \u00a0They alert you of deals at Walgreens, cvs, target, among others.<\/p>\n
Overall it’s still something we are adjusting to but it has actually been a very beneficial lesson for us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since becoming a one income family in early spring we have been watching money very tightly. \u00a0We were very fortunate before making the decision to just spend(within reason) and not worry too much about what was spent. \u00a0Luckily for us … Continue reading