My Favorite Budgeting App Mint.com - A Tutorial (1 of 3)

I’ve been compulsively keeping a budget since I was in college. My parents made it a mission to spend as little money as possible when i was growing up, so I guess some of that rubbed off on me. I'm also someone who loves systems, tracking things, and data -- so budgeting is a natural fit for me.

I use Mint for budgeting. I don’t use it to pay bills, I don’t use it to keep track of my investments, and I don’t use it to track or pay down debt. I only use it for monthly and annual budgeting. If you are looking for information on any of those other functions, you are not going to find it here. For me, here what Mint does in a nutshell. It:
* Takes all of the transactions from your checking and savings accounts and all of your credit cards and creates read only connections with each of these accounts. It then
* pulls in and consolidates all of your transactions in a single place
* allows you to categorize each transaction with the proper budget category
* allows you to create a budget
* does budget reporting by month or by a custom time interval
* allows you to export all of your transactions so that you can manipulate them outside of mint in a spreadsheet

[TeagueChrystie]

You are a saint. This was so well-explained and thoughtfully prepared. Thanks.

[vanessamelchiori]

This was just what I needed to be able to use Mint quickly, thank you!

[gaemuscollins]

Wow, really professional video. A refreshing change from much of the content on YouTube. Thanks!

[armondo]

New to mint, the category breakdown is pretty great, it does require minimal tweaking for my preferences but I’m finding really helpful, never realized how much I spend on food

[golfrichardvc]

I'm 53 seconds in and you mention my beloved Microsoft Money !! I'm currently still using it (you read that right) after finding a workaround for my PC but I am considering moving to a chromebox which means everything has to be done online !! There is hope !

[rjmii]

Thank you! I have avoided Mint because I thought I could not change or add categories. I plan to give it a try. Very helpful!

[evesegasture]

Thank you! Loved your clear and concise explanations! I wish I watched it before I figured some things out myself! I'm going to watch your other two videos too!

[kari-karislinedancing]

Thanks sooo much. Very clear and informative. I look forward to watching and learning more from you! Thanks for all your time, work, and sharing!

[teakayh]

Great video - I have used Mint sporadically through the years - ie I have a lot of transactions that fall under uncategorized or everything else. If you were to suggest how to tackle older transactions and current transactions - where would you start? If you want to start all new transaction categories, would you start those in Budget to create categories that make sense to you? Thanks for your help -

[inperspective]

Great review. Thanks for highlighting the split function - I just started using the program and could not find it.

[tylerstrother]

Great job. Don't know why anybody would give you a thumbs down

[Tactical_]

You can export specific data from the trends screen. Select the category, scroll to the bottom, and hit 'export to csv'.

[erinkeam]

Thank you! That was incredibly helpful.

[marymidgett]

New to mint. confused about what is happening with the transactions when I check it with a blue checkmark, because they are listed in the correct category. There is no "submit" button.

[rafaelgomez]

Great VIDEO....To HIDE an account, Do I select DELETE ?

[cryptocomplete]

Is it possible to nest categories deeper than two? In Quicken I can create a seemingly unlimited nesting of categores, such as: Pets - Pet Food - Dry - Kibble. Is that possible in Mint? Or am I limited to just two levels, such as Pets - Pet Food?

[Lexi]

Great video! I've suggested MINT to my grandchildren, get the kids into savings early!

[themateomusic]

When you talked about "Budgeting your income on the right side, you actual income of the left" that made everything click. The concept of budgeting my income did not make sense immediately and the Mint website help is terrible. Thank you!

[jamesgray]

What's the check boxes for on the left side of Transactions?

[debbiejester]

love first video, i need info on the income side--i am a bookkeeper and am having a hard time understanding the in and out of the money