Budgeting can be a drag, but Mint makes it a lot less painful.
Its free, its easy, and it tracks your spending automatically as you go.
Break Down Bulk Purchases with OneReceipt
Mint is awesome at automatically categorizing the money you spend.
The problem is, some purchases include items that fall under different categories.
Lets say you bought coffee, shoes, and a book on Amazon.
That single order falls under groceries, shopping, and entertainment, depending on how you categorize stuff.
Sure, you’re free to get around this by splitting the single Amazon transaction into multiple transactions.
Heres whereOneReceiptcomes in handy.
Wevetold you about the tool beforeit tracks your online receipts.
They now have aChrome extensionthat works with Mint.
It matches the receipts in your email to your Mint transactions.
Keep in mind: the extension works based on merchant and amount.
So after you split a transaction, OneReceipt can no longer find it, since the amount has changed.
Budget Shared Expenses with Split & Hide
Joint purchases can be a pain in Mint.
Its not Mints faulthow is it supposed to know you shared a transaction with someone else?
One way to get around this is the ol split and hide method.
I use this method with the expenses I share with my boyfriend.
We separate our finances, but we have a joint credit card for shared expenses.
When the bill is due, I pay it, and he writes me a check for half.
This way, I get a more accurate idea of what my own spending looks like.
Rent is a little easier.
I set up a rule to automatically categorize my rent check amount as Mortgage and Rent.
So lets say you take out $100 cash for spending.
First, ensure its categorized as Cash and ATM in Mint.
Then, lets say you spend $25 cash on lunch.
This makes senseyou added the $25 lunch, so everything is square.
Redditor Cputerace points outthat it’s possible for you to also use this category to handle split transactions.
Its basically like a withdrawal, anyway, since you do have the cash on hand.
And if you pay with cash a lot, theres a fun trick for that, too.
This way the withdrawal doesnt show up in your budget.
In my case, I took out $80 from the ATM.
Alter the date of your ATM transaction to the last day of the month (i.e.
This way the ATM transaction is always top-most.
Youll always know how much cash is in your wallet.
Lets say you spend $2 out of the $80 ATM cash at a restaurant.
punch Split this Transaction button on the ATM transaction from step 1.
Categorize the $2 as Restaurants.
Now your cash spending is reflected in your Mint Budget.
Add additional Splits to the ATM transaction as soon as you spend cash.
With this method, instead of entering your cash transactions, you simply keep splitting the original withdrawal transaction.
you’ve got the option to also put in your cash receipts manually.
When you pick a category, Mint will ask you toalwaysselect that category for that merchant.
Lets say you go to a restaurant called Adobe.
Mint might not recognize it, and it may automatically categorize it aslodging.
Check that box, and youll never have to re-categorize it again.
If you go someplace a lot, this comes in handy.
you’ve got the option to do it with specific amounts, too.
This is what I do with my half of the rent.
Now, Mint knows when I paid my rent, just based on the amount.
With these rules set up, you dont have to constantly enter and organize stuff in Mint.
It becomes even more automaticas long as youre willing to put in a bit of effort up front.
Of course, Mint will always requiresomemaintenance.
Chances are, youll spend money someplace Mint doesnt recognize.
Or youll have cash transactions.
Or youll need to split transactions.
The key with Mint is finding a routine to take care of this stuff.
you might create and add specific tags to transactions, so you might look up those transactions later.
The built-in reimbursable tag comes in handy for looking up IRS deductions, for example.
you could get even more detailed and track specific deductions, too.
Add a business travel tag and home office tag, for example.
This makes it really easy to find those deductions at tax time.
All you have to do is search the tag.
Tags can help you stay organized well beyond that.
Lets say I have a category for travelthis might include weekend trips, work travel, or vacations.
you might also hide specific tags from the Trends page.
it’s possible for you to simply search the merchant or amount, or search by category and tag.
Lets say you pay estimated taxes throughout the year, and you want to see how much youve paid.
If youve created a category for Estimated Taxes, you might search that.
From the Transactions page, you could also bulk edit items.
you might also search for transactions thatdontinclude a specific tag.
jot down -tag:[search term] into the search box and press enter.
If you simply searched Taxes or IRS, all of your tax payments would pop up.
But you’re free to do it by adjusting the URL a little.
It connects to your account and lets you customize your page layout.
Once you download the extension, a little link to Mojito will appear on your Mint homepage.
nudge the link, and an options page will pop up.
If theyve increased, youll see green spikes.
If theyve decreased, youll see red.
TheValuetab shows you this same change in value, but its simplified in bar chart form.
TheAllocationtab shows you exactly whats included in your portfolio.
you’re able to sort these by value, too.
Images bygilmijar,simpletutorials.net, anddoctormo.
