Using Mint.com for budgeting

[Account Closed]

On one of the webinars mint.com was suggested to help with budgeting. Do many people use this and if so, how do you like it compared to other budgeting options?

[Pete Perez]

I tried to use Mint for a while but didn't like it. I think the principal of tracking expenses and categorizing them is a must. For me it seemed like there was too much in the "other" category for spending and I couldn't conceptualize what it actually was.

I switched to my own Excel spreadsheet that I made. It took me maybe an hour to setup but its got everything I need with respect to my personal finances. I know a lot of people don't like using excel for personal finance because the data entry can be tedious, but I find that it really only takes about 5 minutes per day for me to enter my purchases in and its a habit I've created for myself. It has become my "One Thing". 

This is mainly what I look at. I like to make projections for my self a few months in advance, and plan out my expenses and debt services. This way if I am in a particular month I don't need to question what amount do I need to contribute what what debt service? The payment plan I laid out for myself is already there in the projected section for me. 

This is what is currently working for me. I imagine that as finances get more complicated in the future I will graduate to a better method, but for now this works great for me.