Growing up...

I'm trying to get a hold on my life.

I've gained 30 pounds since getting married.

We haven't saved up the kind of money we were hoping to.

We had no food storage.

That's not the kind of life I want to continue with. So I've implemented a few changes. Like, we're counting calories now.

I've lost six pounds in a week, just by cutting out snacking and eating better. Incredible really. I know I can't always expect these kinds of results, but I think it's a tribute to just how unhealthy our life style had been, just one week ago.

We've started budgeting. See below for the awesome tool we're using.

We're started on the food storage. It's not huge, but we're working on it.

I want to tell you about the website we're using to budget though. I had spent a few hours chronicalling all of our spending in Excel (my least favorite program in the world) when I made a facebook plea for suggestions. After multiple "try using excel" suggestions, my Mama suggested I look at Mint.com and holy cow, I wish she had said it 4 hours earlier. Here is a little tour of Mint.com - just in case you too are looking for an easy to use, free, budgeting program. I realize the pictures are a bit small, so you can also check them out at flickr.com/areedwedding for a closer look at the details.

After creating an on Mint.com, you can add your bank accounts. I know this seems a little sketchy, but the connection between Mint.com and your bank is Read Only. They can collect the information, but they (and you) can't move money or do any other kind of transactions.

This is super useful for us, as we share accounts, but we have accounts at two different banks. They pull all of the transaction from both banks, and put them in one place. As you can see in the picture below, it's completely customizable - if something is listed incorrectly, you can change it and label it with one of the pre-made labels, or you can add your own. I changed Wal*Mart to mean groceries, since that is where we do our grocery shopping.

It also lets you split a purchase, so if you buy groceries, and a new pair of jeans on the same trip, you can set $30 for the groceries and $20 for the jeans, or what ever you spent.

Once all of your transactions have been listed, they create your current budget based on your past purchases. This was pretty shocking for us, since we had been spending far too much money on eating out. If the "pre-set" budget isn't what you want to spend, then you can change it, or if they don't have something you want to include in your budget, then you can add it. It also shows your spending compared to the US.

Another feature is it lets you decide if you want the budget to roll over. I said yes on the entertainment/eating out budgets, but no on the groceries, rent, etc - because those are pretty set in stone.

After you set up your budget, you can see it. I love the visual aspects of this website

As you can see, our ridiculous Electric bill hasn't hit our account yet, so but our rent, phone, and internet bills have. It tell you how much of your budgets money is left. If you go over - the bar turns red.

If you stick to the budget, then on the right it tells you how much money you will (potentially) have left over, and you can see how much it adds up over the next 3, 6, 9 or 12 months!

It also gives you pretty pie-charts! These can be organized by category, merchant, and over time. If you click on one piece of the pie chart, it gives you another breakdown of that specific category.

On the left it shows the potential to add other types of accounts, like managing your student loans, investments, and property. On the bar graph is also shows you where you are in the month, so for items like groceries or entertainment you can see how much money you have left compared to how much of the month is left.

You can also set up alerts, to let you know when you're reaching your Credit Card limits, or when you (or some one who has stolen your card) makes a huge purchase, or when bills are due.

Overall I am very pleased with this website. It also offer investment opportunities, and "ways to save" - or offers for credit cards/accounts based on your spending habits.

And the last thing I need to say is:

Thanks Mom!