I am quite anal when it comes to tracking our money. I like to know where everything goes and that everything is accounted for. It just gives me a piece of mind. It doesn’t always mean that we are sticking to budget, mind you, but at least I know where we are going wrong at the end of the month.
Mint.com is a free site that helps you with tracking where you are spending. It will help you put together a budget and give you a great financial picture within minutes of getting set up. I am a big fan of the graphs and charts. So pretty 
Oh, and it is FREE. What is more frugal than free?
Now, for all the disclosure. I have used Microsoft Money to track my spending since college. But I kept hearing all this amazing stuff about Mint so I went over there planning on making the switch. I switched back. Not because Mint.com isn’t fabulous. Cause frankly it pretty much kicks Microsoft Money in the you know where. But I am just so used to Money and have it set up so that I don’t even have to use my brain anymore. So I don’t actually use Mint.com. But if I didn’t have experience with any budgeting software, I would be all over Mint.com. And I can’t tell you how many people have been telling me lately about how wonderful it is.
Right now, Juice Box Jungle (the little green widget over on my left sidebar) is sponsored by Mint.com. If you click over there, there is an ecard which you can send right from the widget to tell a friend how and where you saved money online. You can use one of my Frugal Friday tips or anything else you use to save your family money. Help your friends and maybe a few readers will come my way (shameless self promotion!). There are also a bunch of other fun things to do with the widget so click around and see what you find.
*Disclosure: I do make a very small amount of running Juice Box Jungle Ads on my website. But you clicking on the widget and sending ecards does not affect my revenue.
For more frugal tips, head over to Life As Mom.
Mandy
Twitter: PennyBlessings
says:
I used Microsoft Money for years, but have never set it up on my new(er) laptop that uses Vista. I will check out Mint to see if it looks like something I can use! Thanks for the tip!
Mandy´s last blog ..Things I love Thursdays…It’s Fall!!
[Reply]
October 15th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Jen-After the Alter
says:
I think mint.com is great! My husband told me about it. I haven’t tweaked it to work for me totally yet, but it has great potential!
Jen-After the Alter´s last blog ..Enough With The Socks!!!
[Reply]
October 16th, 2009 at 9:18 am
Jessica B
says:
I personally strongly dislike programs like mint and quicken because you HAVE to enter your bank information in order to use their products. I am a server and my SO doesn’t have a bank account, so we are a cash family. There is absolutely no reason for me to enter in my bank info. I would still LOVE to see pie charts of where my money goes, but I will never use their program because it’s all or nothing.
[Reply]
October 16th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Taylor
says:
Thanks for the tip! I am always looking for ways to be better with money. Haven’t heard of this site yet.
Taylor´s last blog ..Someday My Prince Will Come
[Reply]
October 20th, 2009 at 12:05 am