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Using credit cards with a traditional budget means you are actually spending next month’s income since bills lag a month behind. The problem was that it was hard to know how much we could pay on our debt. We always pay our credit card off each month, so getting into more debt isn’t an issue. We use credit cards for convenience, rewards, and protection. 4- We like using credit cards, but they were complicating our budget. That might be useful if it added some information, but there is no visual indication of whether you’re one dollar or a hundred dollars over. There is no consequence for going over, except that the entire bar for that category turns red.
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The budget bar graph gave us an idea of how much we had spent already in each category that month and how much more we had left to spend, but it did not offer much if we went over budget.
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3- There is no good way to account for going over-budget. Since Mint doesn’t give us a good way to account for being over-budget in one category and under-budget in another category, it’s pretty hard to make sure each of your dollars have a place to go. We wanted to have all of our money going somewhere so that we could make sure we were paying the maximum on our debt.
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It is a record of the past, rather than a plan for the future like a budget should be.Ģ- Mint doesn’t work well for zero-based budgeting. The only time they come together is on the right side of the budget screen where Mint subtracts what you’ve earned so far with what you’ve spent so far. In Mint they are separate and distinct rather than integrated. Obviously income and spending are two vital parts of a budget. 1- Income and Spending in Mint aren’t connected. Mint is fine for seeing where your money went, but not a really good way of telling it where to go, which is what a budget should do. Here are a few of the specific problems we had with our Mint budget. While I like the convenience of having all of the info from various accounts all in one place, Mint isn’t really a budgeting tool. You can split transactions between multiple categories if you need to. In order for your budget to be useful, you must categorize each transaction. Sometimes Mint does a good job of guessing, but it often gets the category wrong. Each time you log in to Mint you’ll want to take a look at your transactions to check the categories Mint has assigned each transaction to. For each category, you set a spending amount. You can set a budget with Mint by clicking on the budget tab. Each time we log into Mint, Mint logs into all of our accounts to bring us the current balances and transactions. We have all of our financial accounts connected to Mint (checking accounts, savings accounts, retirement accounts, credit cards, student loans). Since 2007 we have used to track our spending and budget. These savings will help you stop living from paycheck to paycheck.I’m really excited to share with you how we have overcome some of the stumbling blocks of budgeting and why switching from Mint to YNAB has totally transformed our budgeting! Mint Keep in mind that after you pay all your bills, you should also be setting aside money each month into savings. Call and ask to get your monthly due date changed. Check with your utility company to see if a monthly budget option is available to you.Īnd if your bills are due at all different times of the month? Most companies are willing to work with you to change the due date, especially if you are setting up a direct debit. This way, you would pay more in lower usage months, and less in higher usage months, but the overall amount you would pay would remain constant and predictable. Be sure to allow for fluctuations in these bills if you choose to set up a direct debit. Many utility companies will offer the option of paying a fixed, monthly amount, based on your anticipated annual usage. However, it may be a bit more complicated with bills that aren't a set amount, such as utility bills. If you have other bills automatically deducted from your checking account, such as your mortgage payment, you can also set this to come out the day after you get paid. If you are paid on the first of every month, you can set up your cell phone or cable bill to come out at the beginning of the month.