MINT

I wanted to pass along a little tidbit of info that has significantly simplified my financial life these past few months. I've already shared this with most of my friends here....but it's definitely worth hearing again! I've always tried to stick to a monthly budget and to plan ahead and monitor our expenses, but it's really easy to get lazy and stop keeping track, or not really realize where you're spending money, or how much you're spending on particular things. Despite valiant efforts, I feel like I've never really come up with the perfect format for tracking our finances...until now. Ben and I recently started using this website called Mint.com and it is awesome. It allows you to upload all of your financial accounts, credit cards, savings, checking, loans, assets; basically anything that relates to your finances. It then allows you to track every transaction you put on any card or through any account in one centralized location. It breaks down your spending into various trends, has great visual graphs and charts that help you better understand where you money is going, it allows you to set budgets in specific spending categories and then it sends you updates as you get closer to meeting/exceeding your budget. You can easily compare your spending trends month to month, see how much you spend at a specific vendor and they often have individualized recommendations on how you can save.

The biggest issue for us was whether or not our financial information was safe on this website. I have read review after review that goes into detail on the safety of the website. They say the biggest/only real concern would be someone getting access to your password which is a concern on any website, and with that, they couldn't get access to account numbers, they could only see what you see which is basically your account balances and your spending.

Check it out if you haven't already. I was pretty skeptical at first, but I have found we have spent way less in the last few month, simply because we are so accountable. Every single transaction shows up on the sight, which makes you think twice about buying that pair of shoes you really don't need! Not only that, but I've been shocked by what we're really spending our money on! (Lets just say we don't go hungry!)

I failed to mention one of the nicest things about the website...it's free!
Check out some of these reviews to get a better explanation of Mint's features.

Review 1
Review 2
Review 3

Catch Up

It would take way too long to actually get caught up on everything that has happened since Thanksgiving, so I'll just hit the high points!
December was a great/incredibly busy moth, as it usually is for most people. I spent the first weekend in NYC with all my sisters and my mom. We had such a great time together. I highly recommend a mother/sister weekend to anyone who hasn't tried it before! I have to say, we're all pretty different in terms of interests/likes/dislikes/tastes etc....so I wasn't exactly sure what the weekend would bring, but it was just such fun to be together. It didn't really matter what we were doing, it was just the fact we were doing it together. There was lots of shopping, lots of Starbucks, lots of yummy food, a little bit of theater and a little bit of sightseeing. We went to see the Lion King on Saturday night. I wasn't sure what to expect....but it really was fantastic. I was shocked how much I loved it.
My vote is for Hawaii next time we all get together!





The rest of December was filled with teaching, doctoring, preparing for Christmas, and Young Womens, (as always), mixed with some Christmas parties, cold weather and beautiful snow...that is now not so beautiful...and needing to melt. Unfortunately "mud" season doesn't hit till May or June, so we've got a few moths to go.

We traveled to Utah for the holidays and spent it with Ben's whole family. It was a great vacation, once we finally got there. What a headache! All I will say is there were lots of tears, and some yelling....additional tickets purchased, lost bags, and sheer exhaustion! I'm SO glad we made it....it was looking really bad there for a while! We're still fighting with airlines to try and get reimbursed for the new tickets, we'll see what happens, though I'm not holding my breath.
Christmas brought lots of Rock Band, Guitar Hero, scum, bowling, movies, yummy food and catching up with great friends and family! As much as we love Vermont, we are reminded every time we are with family how hard it is to be so far.



January brought NEW BEGINNINGS! That basically consumed my thoughts and time the entire month....and boy am I glad that's over! I also took on two new students, lost four students (the dang economy is killing my business), taught some flute lessons, Ben continued doctoring, we both got the stomach flu, attended the symphony, had a rock band party, moved our bedroom into the living room and got hooked on West Wing. Did I mention there are something like 7 seasons, and 22 episodes in a season. Talk about a commitment!

(I forgot to take a picture at New Beginngings, so an old camp one will have to do!)

(Our "Girls Only" band. We rocked!)

That's the highly abridged version of the last couple of month. For the most part, life is great. We're busy, and we love what we do.

February is Ben and I's last normal month together for a while. Looks like he will be traveling from March through June for school, doing away rotations and ophthalmology research, so we're trying to take advantage of our time together. The spring will be tough, but it's the price we have to pay, we simply look at it as a long term investment!