Fact 1: Using Mint.com can greatly aid one in creating a budget, tracking spending and otherwise taking steps towards fiscal responsibility and adulthood.
Fact 2: Changing the budget settings every time you go over budget - supposedly because the old budgeted amount "wasn't realistic, but really because the big red numbers make me feel bad - defeats most of the benefits of having a budget to begin with.
(I wish I was one of those bloggers who can be wonderfuly real, even when its a little less than pretty, but I can't quite shake free the urge to paint a perfect picture of my life. So I'm compromising in parentheses. In reality we're fairly frugal - we live off of about $22,000 a year + the little we have in savings ((granted that 20gs is all student loan money, so I'm not sure how fiscally wonderful that figure is)) - which given that rent on the shoebox is about $14,000 a year and DC is an expensive city is reasonably impressive. Using Mint has been a nice way to get a better handle on what we spend on what and try to reduce our student debt load, but given how low our non-rent budget is, there is only so much to do. I'm trying to be better, I really am. But I like clothes, going out occasionally, decorating the shoebox so its less shoeboxy and what not. I don't want to be in hideous debt forever, and I'm really grateful that its all debt from student loans, not credit cards, but its so hard to remember the future in the now. And I'm not above tweaking the numbers when its unavoidable so I can feel a little better about it all. It's cheating, but some days metaphorically sticking my fingers in my ears and going "lalalala" is oh so necessary)
Sometimes, I have to force myself to be honest about my life. I want people who read my blog because they hate me to know I have an awesome life and I love it. So I want to paint it like it's awesome and I'm happy, but it's not always like that!
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