Tuesday, December 9, 2008

On a budget

Obviously, when I left my job in April we lost a significant part of our income. The last 8 months has been a major transition (that's putting it mildly), but it has also been a marvelous time of learning. Never before have I had the time (or reason) to really learn how to budget and how to spend wisely.
I've come across a couple awesome websites:
www.mint.com
This site has been invaluable to us in creating our budget. Everyone kept telling us to use paper envelopes, or at most would have us fill-in a spreadsheet (something we've done for years, but it still didn't help us get out of debt). Mint.com is automatic, online, and easy-to-use. It doesn't have a capability of deducting our budget from our income, but I can do that easily in Excel. I love that it sends you e-mail alerts or texts if you're getting close or go over your budget. It also alerts you to bills that need to be paid. I.Love.It.
www.ynab.com
This guy has good, simple advice. He breaks it up into 10 emails/1 per day. It's really helped my husband and I talk about things we didn't even know we needed to talk about. Plus, it's really changed my perspective on the budget. It's not something I dread anymore.

1 comment:

Rose said...

I'm going to check those out right now!