I have decided to try to enlist the help of Mint and Xpenser to try monitoring and tracking my expenses. I am more curious to see how the next month’s expenditures will go. Mint is a great financial tool as it can analyze your transactions and even do trend reports over your spending habits by linking to your bank accounts and/or credit cards. The site is SSL encrypted and it does mask off your account numbers in case someone decides to try glance over your shoulder. It’s pretty cool as you can analyze your transactions and see where a bulk of your cash goes or the site can even recommend better credit cards that could be better than the ones you have. Scary thing is most of my cash is going to my car note and Wal-Mart… not “shopping”, dining, or drinking. That alone is shocking.

Xpenser is a different tool. It’s more of an expense log to allow you to invoice your purchases to see how your budgeting is going. It’s great for when you don’t want to hold on to that receipt of yours just to log it. Xpenser is pretty slick as you can make “invoices” via the web application from the website, send an IM via AIM, call with a phone, or even text message!

I am going to give it a try for a month and see how much it can help me curb my spending and help me repay my family faster. I also managed to find the advice I need and I may just have the craziest plan ever… I can’t WAIT for May 21st!