Balancing your budget using Mint

Sneakybobo · 2018-08-23T07:52:13+00:00

You should also try out Linux Mint.

DWShimoda · 2018-08-23T09:07:32+00:00

I’m using an app called mint which after linking your bank information and other bills will track every purchase you make. Giving you a detailed summary of where each dollar is going.

ONLY IF... "EVERY purchase you make" is done via some "card" or other EFT (and even then it can be VERY ambiguous/dubious * ).

You pull out some cash & blow it at a local bar, fast food joint, (or whatever), it doesn't "track" that beyond "cash withdrawal" -- it has no way of categorizing what you did with the money.

That may not be a problem for you, but I guarantee you it is a BIG part of the problem for many others.

* Point: you just spent $105 at the local supermarket/grocery store. Is that all REALLY "food"? How much was "booze" (beer, liquor, wine)? How much was "other stuff" (everything from OTC medicine, to cat food/cat litter {i.e."pet expense"}, to cleaning supplies, to what is arguably "entertainment": magazine, newspaper, maybe a DVD from a$1 or $5 bin, or even arguably soda pop & snacks, etc.)?

And then even of the stuff that IS all technically "food" (people food), well are you tracking the "crap/convenience/snack/entertainment" stuff (again soda/booze, but also candy, chips, cookies, deli stuff and so on) separately from your main meal foods?

Why? Because big chunk of what people "blow" (squander) in terms of their "discretionary" spending money on is precisely that kind of "crap/convenience" stuff. All those little extra $1 and $2 and $5 purchases -- the coffee or soda from the machine at work, candy bar & soda bought at the gas station in the morning or evening, etc -- stuff that gets "buried" or "hidden" in other categories of stuff (or else simply never accounted for at all, because "pocket change" etc) -- over time those things do add up.

Particularly the "convenience" things -- whether the aforementioned "snacks" or some microwave meal, or take-away/take-out/fast food -- end of the month, a person may EASILY have blown roughly $600 to $900 (or more) on such things... divvy that up and it's anywhere from $20 to $30 per day. You could have been buying/cooking/eating really good home-grilled STEAKS (and chops, and ribs, and etc), and probably spent LESS money -- but instead you got chips & shitty burgers & pizza, overpriced deli & fast food. You could have had bacon & eggs & toast & juice for breakfast, instead you paid 2x the cost of that for a K-cup of coffee & a couple of pop-tarts (or worse 10x the cost for gas station coffee & donut {which of course gets buried/hidden in the "gas" category}).

Similar kind of "data/logic" fail happens (especially in the US) with things like cars -- people often don't even THINK of the "cost" involved in the "extra" little trips into town -- and even if they DO, they generally ONLY think in terms of "gas cost"; i.e. if driving there and back is 30 miles, and my car gets 30 mpg, then it costs me 1 gallon of gas, roughly $3 to drive that. No, that's far from the true total cost, it ignores (because it seems "trivial") the other costs of maintaining/operating a vehicle -- all of the "wear & tear" of the (gradually but steadily accumulating) mileage.

If you're putting 20k+ miles on a vehicle in a year you're going to hit 100k miles in less than 5 years; dial that back to 15k miles a year and it will take nearly 7 years; dial it back further to 10k miles (or even 5k or less) and the thing will last you decades (with many MORE years between "dang new tires AGAIN!" stuff).

You see, actual cost -- depreciation, financing, insurance, maintenance & repair, etc -- adds up to be about 55 to 60 cents PER MILE... which means that 30 mile extra/side trip mentioned above, doesn't JUST cost a "gallon of gas"; it costs about $15 to $18 (plus of course, whatever it was you went to buy/spend -- if it was some "appox. $10 fast food meal" -- well that crap-food "convenience/laziness" actually cost you around $25 to $30).

Obviously the above does NOT sit well with most people -- it's too "minimalistic", too "frugal", too BRUTALLY "threatening" to the way that they (habitually) go about their life -- but that doesn't make it any less true.

caniballovestory · 2018-08-23T07:50:58+00:00

thanks for this, man!

life_is_confusing472 · 2018-08-23T17:18:11+00:00

I like using Mint to calculate my net worth and to see all my balances in one place. But I prefer to budget manually using Excel. I usually have a bit of trouble using Mint's budget tool, plus creating and managing one manually helps me stay in more control of my income and expenses.

echoedfart14 · 2018-08-23T08:08:48+00:00

Cool, I’ll give it a try thank you!

MadPreacher1AD · 2018-08-23T11:23:32+00:00

Can I run all my Windows programs and games natively in Linux? If not then why should I switch?

Kwen_Oellogg · 2018-08-23T12:30:37+00:00

I've used Mint for years. It allows you to see every dollar you spend. It also has a place where you can add your Real Estate holdings and watch their appreciation. Everything in one place.

Title	Balancing your budget using Mint
Author	echoedfart14
Upvotes	18
Comments	18
Date	August 23, 2018 7:49 AM UTC (7 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MGTOW
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MGTOW/comments/99lfct/balancing_your_budget_using_mint/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MGTOW/balancing-your-budget-using-mint.504884 https://theredarchive.com/post/504884

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