Mint is an award winning, free budgeting tool that links all of your bank accounts and credit cards securely in one place. This gives you a complete picture of your finances, without you having to calculate anything. It’s almost like Quicken but far easier to use. Plus, Mint has great budgeting features, a modern designed site, helpful financial planning articles.

First, set up all of your logins for your bank accounts and credit cards. Don’t worry, your info is safe and secure since Mint uses the latest security features. Then set up your budget, setting aside the desired amount per category. Mint will automatically track your spending in each category. You will be able to see how much you are currently spending in each category and how much money is left in your budget.

There is also a transaction tab that looks like a checkbook register. Mint will automatically put your purchases and transactions into a category. You can also edit and correct these categories here.

When everything is set up, Mint puts your budget categories into a graph and a pie chart so you can visually see where your money is going. This really helps if you’re a visual person like me.

Basically, Mint.com makes it easy to budget even if you’re lazy. Simply log into Mint.com and it will pull the latest info from all of your accounts so you can see if you are on target or not.

Why is Mint free? Mint recommends financial products like credit cards or investment accounts according to your individual needs. When you sign up for those products they make money. You are not obligated to look at these products or sign up with them.

Sign up with Mint.com and learn about how to set up a budget.