The Simple Way to Make Budgeting Easier with Multiple Payment Methods

Apps for Easy Budgeting

When it comes to budgeting, it’s either something you love or something you really don’t care much for. I’m the latter. In fact, I’m married to a banker so I long ago handed over the budgeting to him so that he could keep it on track and leave me totally out of the game. I appreciate that he does that and that I never have to take the time to balance a checkbook or bother with those things. I think that the biggest issue with budgeting is that most of us use so many different methods of payment that we forget to keep them in all mind. It’s not easy. For us, we have a credit card, two PayPal debit cards, our regular bank debit card for our checking out, savings accounts and more checking accounts.

I write checks all the time to my daughter’s school or the pest control guy or my daughter’s gymnastics center and forget about them. I use my Paypal card all the time even though I don’t keep money in there because of the cash back. That means my husband is constantly seeing charges being sent through our bank account that simply read “Paypal Transfer” and he has no idea what they are for. We can’t keep our budget on track without one payment method, and it seems that this might be the pretty popular opinion.

What I recommend is that you get Mint. It’s been kind of awesome for us. It helps us see all our accounts. My husband instantly sees transactions from all accounts so he knows where they are going, what they are for and how to balance our book. It makes the entire process much simpler for him, and it also helps us to see where we are wasting money and where we need to cut back the budget (Publix, really). If you want to use multiple payment methods on a regular basis, this is where things are made simpler. While I prefer Mint, there are a number of other apps out there that allow you to do the same thing with your budget. Pick the one that works best for you and your family, and let us know how it goes for you.

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