Author Topic: Using Mint's budgeting tools. Anyone else use it? Any tips?  (Read 1606 times)

Sonos

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Using Mint's budgeting tools. Anyone else use it? Any tips?
« on: February 15, 2017, 04:02:21 AM »
We are just started using Mint as our budgeting tool. We've set up the basic monthly bills and are in the process of tweaking other budget items to get them right, like yearly bills, long-term goals (saving for vacation), and saving for lumpy items (big home repairs, big dental work, etc).

Does anyone else out these use Mint to budget? Any tips?

We tried using YNAB, but found it to be too cumbersome for us (I know we have a lot of YNAB fans that may be reaching for their smelling salts when I say that). We alread like using Mint and reference it for our monthly finance night.

MightyAl

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Re: Using Mint's budgeting tools. Anyone else use it? Any tips?
« Reply #1 on: February 15, 2017, 04:58:23 AM »
I have just started using mint also.  I think it will take some tweaking month after month to get things dialed in.  I have set some of my budgets for things that I absolutely know will hit month after month.  Next I am going to start budgeting for annual expenses like insurance and taxes and have them roll over month to month until the bill hits. 

I tried YNAB also but it wouldn't link to my bank so it was a no go on the first day.  It seemed alright but I will never know now.

soccerluvof4

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Re: Using Mint's budgeting tools. Anyone else use it? Any tips?
« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2017, 07:21:31 AM »
We have used Mint religiously for about 2 years now and love it. Over the course of that time we have tweaked numerous times to be more definitive in our spending breaking things out. The only tip I have is just keep working it till you get it to where it reads with info the way you want.  Also they have some descent blogs and promotions from time to time. Good Luck!

catccc

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Re: Using Mint's budgeting tools. Anyone else use it? Any tips?
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2017, 10:07:21 AM »
I gave it a half hearted try last year trying to find a YNAB alternative.  It was just too different and I gave up.  YNAB classic still works, but it is now unsupported which I assume means it is only a matter of time before it starts having issues.  I have been using YNAB classic (manual entry) for 3-4 years now and I'm very used to it.  It works the way I want it to and has shaped our account structure and organization.  I love it.

Anyway, my point is I should try Mint again sometime.  YNAB as I use it now is different from how I started using it, but not that different.  Starting with Mint will be a complete change, but I think I need to give it another go...

If anyone has tips on being able to only budget what is coming in, and having only certain budgets roll forward to the next month, let me know...  Off the top of my head I think those were two things I couldn't figure out in mint.