Money!

[crazykawaii]

As a part of being a responsible adult, a year or so ago I began a system of tracking how much money I spent. At the end of each month, I'd gather up my pay stubs and bank account statements and ferret out my receipts from where I'd stuck them in my wallet and bags and pockets and gather up the piles on my dresser and desk, and I'd spread them all

Comments

[dimethirwen]

I'm also using Mint! I like it, mostly, though I find it frustrating that it doesn't "understand" some of what I'm doing. Like, when I was living with Sarah, I took my portion of the money out and labeled it "rent," and then she paid with a check. But now, I take money from my roommate and pay the whole rent, but Mint doesn't account for the fact that I put $700 into my account just before writing a check for $1,400, so it says "YOU ARE SPENDING TOO MUCH ON RENT!" and I'm like "IT'S THE SAME AMOUNT AS BEFORE SO STOP YELLING AT ME."

But overall, it's all good. :)

[crazykawaii]

Yeah, it's definitely not perfect - it's really confused that my rent changes every month (because I use my rent check to Sam to settle our utility debts, as well), and I'm kind of annoyed that it yelled at me for spending $2 extra this month - really? It's TWO DOLLARS.

However, at this point, even that is fun for me. :)

[blue_shadows9]

Living with a hacker (and being kinda paranoid all by myself), I have to say, that looks like a recipe for disaster if that site ever gets hacked.

Otherwise, it seems pretty damn convenient! I've never bothered with a formal budget, though, myself. I pretty much just make sure I can afford to pay for stuff, and then I try to keep my bank account going up.

[crazykawaii]

Yeah, I am not super paranoid, but enough that I haven't linked any of my savings accounts. I figure if the site DOES get hacked, the bulk of my money is elsewhere.

I've never bothered with a formal budget, either, but I want to get better about transferring money from my checking account to my savings account when I've saved it. At the moment, I know I'm saving, but I don't really know how much. And having a tool like this means it'll be easier to figure out what I can afford - like if someone else wants the baby bedroom in the house, can I spend an extra $100 plus on rent to live in one of the other ones? Etc.

Mostly, though, it is just dorky Fun With Graphs. :)

[crazykawaii]

You know you want to go play with it... ;)

[crazykawaii]

:(