Like most people, I had to be dragged kicking and screaming into budgeting. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy spending hours in front of my computer, figuring out where the last half penny of my money was spent. And it’s certainly not because I didn’t love playing with Excel and landing on all its programming bugs.

My hesitation was better explained by the fact that I simply didn’t have that much money to keep track of. Whether there was a dollar set aside under entertainment or utilities, who cared? Certainly not the IRS, who lay in wait to eat up my meager funds anyway.

But this week, I finally bit the bullet and signed up for a budgeting account under Mint.com. And, believe it or not, I found the site very easy to navigate. Once I had input all my personal information, Mint took me to a page where I typed in my bank, credit card, and investment account information. Mint then sleuthed out the companies and had me put in my usernames and passwords. Before I knew it, all my monetary information had been gathered and categorized. I could check out my monthly spending via Mint’s handy-dandy pie charts, set up payment reminders for my credit cards, and even look up money-saving tips (like credit cards that are offering 0% APR).

What I really liked about Mint was that it instantly set up a budget for me based on my last two months of spending. I found out that, compared with last month’s expenditures, I was already $10 over my gas/transportation budget. I also could categorize my expenses as I saw fit. Hmm…this was almost, dare I say it…fun?

There were a few things that I found lacking in Mint.com, though. For example, when I input my brokerage account information, the program could not locate my international stock portfolio, only my USA-based one. Also, I didn’t see any way that one could set up a hypothetical budget plan, complete with alerts about going over-budget on some expenditures (like gas).

For those of you who might be concerned about the security of your information at Mint.com, Aaron Patzer, the founder and CEO of Mint, had the following to say:

First, Mint has bank-level data security. That means we have the same level of encryption your bank does, along with outside third-party verification through Verisign and Hackersafe. We also have routine security audits where so-called “white knight hackers” try to break into our system — they’ve never been successful. We also have bank-level physical security. Our servers are located in an unmarked secure building which requires a palm scan to gain entry. After making it past guards, you have to go through a “man-trap” where one door will not open until the other closes and you again have biometric access. Once you get inside, our servers are in a locked cafe monitored with 24/7 video surveillance. Get inside, and the racks themselves are locked. Break those open, and our hard drives are encrypted. It’s seven layers of protection. All that’s missing are the electrified floors…

For the full quote from Mr. Patzer, click here.

Overall, I would recommend Mint.com’s online budget program to anyone seeking to track their spending and/or save money. After all, the program is easy to use, helpful, and it’s free!