As a college student, budgeting became a huge part of my financial life, but since becoming employed, it seems I have left my money saving and monitoring back in Eugene. In the next coming months, I have a lot of saving that needs to be done, so the buckling down is starting now.

To help me track and monitor my budgeting and goal setting, I decided to give mint.com a try. Like I have mentioned before, I am a technology buff, so anything that is online and can be accessed from my laptop or cell phone is great. I downloaded the Mint iPhone application and got started, and I shortly realized I should have done it sooner. After my accounts were all synced, my transactions were auto-categorized into predefined categories and subcategories, exposing the truth of my spending habits. I was amazed at how much I was actually spending in each category, and quickly realized I should start working on eating at home a little bit more, or that I really don’t need that cute top I saw at Nordstrom. This also allowed me to better gauge my overall budget, and look for areas I can scale back on to free up some money, especially for my upcoming vacation to the Dominican Republic.

In order to get a better feel for this app, I thought I would share a few screen shots (not of my personal accounts).

With the start of the new month, I am going to use the application to set and monitor my new budget for November. I am hoping to report back with some more conservative spending habits, a little more fun money for my travels, and a little less Starbucks coffee in my system.

Basha Gitnes