Budget fail (funny)

[rubytue]

I started using Mint this month.  We don't really budget, so this is more of a couple months of tracking to see where we spend.  But it still had the budget page on there.  I think they are mostly at the default.  I don't know if those are national averages or come from previous months. 

So anyway, according to mint, with 6 days left in the month, we have:
$4 left in groceries
$56 left in restaurants
$32 left in fast food.

Looks like we are eating out for the next week

[badgergrl]

MINT can be a problem with those catergorys. Last summer I got one of those alert emails about how I had gone way over my "alcohol and bar" catergory by spending $500 in one hit. I thought my CC had either been stolen or I really needed to have a chat with dh. Turns out mint took my bar dues (as in keeping my law license current) and turned it into a bar charge.

[rubytue]

Jan 25, 2013 19:09:23 GMT -5 badgergrl said:

 Turns out mint took my bar dues (as in keeping my law license current) and turned it into a bar charge.

Well, they are somewhat related, right?

[Deleted]

That is funny. No groceries for you!

I loved the idea of mint, but just couldnt get it to work for me, in part due to categories and also it didn't do enough forecasting for me. So back to quicken 2013. Quicken acquired mint, so hoping mint makes quicken better...

[Deleted]

We have a lot of trouble with groceries/eating out/gas.  Groceries show up in eating out and groceries and since we buy our gas at Kroger, it shows up in one of the two too.

[Deleted]

I just have a " food and dining" budget now.

[flatlan]

Sounds like a fun problem to me!

[MadamePresident]

Why do you have fast food and eating out as two different categories? Aren't they the same thing?

[Roc A Bee]

I wonder what the amounts are set at. I always go over in restaurants, but rarely groceries.

[phunluvin82]

Jan 25, 2013 19:09:23 GMT -5 badgergrl said:

MINT can be a problem with those catergorys. Last summer I got one of those alert emails about how I had gone way over my "alcohol and bar" catergory by spending $500 in one hit. I thought my CC had either been stolen or I really needed to have a chat with dh. Turns out mint took my bar dues (as in keeping my law license current) and turned it into a bar charge.

It used to always classify our dog boarding as 'daycare' (we have no kids).  I kept having to change it to pets...but I mean not that far off, daycare for the furbabies.

I also sometimes cheat and change restaurant charges to 'groceries' when we are over on restaurant spending, but still have plenty left in the grocery budget. 

[rubytue]

Jan 25, 2013 23:41:46 GMT -5 MadamePresident said:

Why do you have fast food and eating out as two different categories? Aren't they the same thing?

cause that's how mint set it up initially. Will fix it after a couple months of tracking.

[lizlemon19]

I am a state employee, so every pay check it would tell me my tax refund is available.

[coconutchips]

For some reason my utility bill goes to entertainment the payment shows as x county fair! Yeah not quite