Money Matters - Mint (dot) com

i just have to post this. i hope i dont have to tell anyone that they did not pay me to do this...but they did not pay me to do this.

i help my husband run our family business....i also run my own business...i am also responsible for our personal finances. because of this...especially because our family business is like a full time accounting job that i cram in to 20 hours a week...our personal finances get overlooked. like majorly overlooked. like i never know how much i even have in my account. i have operated from a "feeling" that we have enough to cover this...well...turns out my feelings dont always match up with my bank's feelings...

so this past month has been a real "come to Jesus" as far as my accounting goes. i realized i suck as an accountant. i begged my husband to fire me for like 4 days straight...when he explained that it was neither a financial option nor a marital option...i tried to figure out how to get it all straight.

i have spent about 10 hours just working on budgets...i still have about a weeks more worth of work in figuring everything out...that is just how mixed and crazy it all is. we recently had this amazing opportunity in our business to finally stop working from a cash negative stand point, so the BUDGET has become full focused.

my problems with budgets in the past is that i dont enter all my receipts until months after the fact. so if i am over budget and continue to be over budget it all happens much too late. also - i dont really have a grasp on all the things we spend money on during the month on a regular basis. we have multiple businesses and our personal finances get all wrapped up...so it gets tricky.

enter Mint.

this is so incredible.

i signed up (for free) and plugged in my bank accounts and my credit card and they categorized all my spending and i set up my budgets. and now on my phone (and my husband's) we can look at a glance where we are with spending. if we are where we should be...if we are over...if our bank account is getting low...if we need to be focusing our budget on other things. its all there...and i cant help myself from looking at it at least 10 times a day right now.

if you are a budget-challenged person like myself...you might just love this app. it is also a website if you dont have a droid or iphone...and so easy to use...so easy to manage. this has completely changed our (financial) life.

so check it out...seriously...and tell them they should pay me or something.