The blog about personal finance, budgeting your money, and the Birdy

Happy holidays! I hope you all had a wonderful time with friends and family, celebrating whatever you might or might not believe  in I also hope you didn’t spend too much, of course.

It’s been a really interesting year for the Birdy, with a lot of ups and downs, but I’m thrilled with how many people we were able to help this year.

What can you look forward to in 2013? We’re working hard on re-building the Birdy almost from the ground up, which with make it easier for you to track your spending on any device, with email, or text. Yes, mobile apps *finally*!

Thank you for your continued support, participation and feedback! Let’s make 2013 the best ever!

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I don’t love re-posting things that someone else posted, but this is great. http://thegodfounder.com/image/36365013208

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We’ve recently updated our budgeting feature!

Originally, if you were a subscriber to our premium features, you were able to set ONE single budget. We recently updated it so that you can set multiple budgets! We hope it helps you keep track of where your money is going.

If you’re a subscriber, when you log in, click on the “budget” button next to “income”. This should take you to a page that says

“It’s November. How much you want to spend this month? In addition, it also shows you how much your budget was for last month.

First, you can set a monthly TOTAL. Enter in your budget for the month – let’s say $400. Remember to click  on the “update your categories” button, otherwise, your budget will not be saved. Once you set your total for the month, you can then break down your TOTAL monthly budget into categories by clicking on the “add another category” drop down list. The drop down list allows you to choose from the different tags you have created so far. For example, I want to set my transportation budget for the month. I click on the drop down list and look for “transportation”. Once I see the tag “transportation”, I can then set a budget for that category. Let’s say I also want to budget my “dinners” for the month. I look for the category “dinner” in the drop down list and add it to my budget. Once you’ve identified all your categories you want to budget for, click the “set your budget” button and this should update your budget page. You can then drag the arrows left and right to adjust your budget accordingly. This will enable you to be more flexible with your money. Maybe you figured out that you budgeted too much or too little money for transportation, so use the arrow to either increase or decrease your transportation budget. You can also remove categories from your budget by pressing the “remove” button under the category name. I forgot to mention that if you need to create a new category for your budget, but don’t see it on the drop down list, create a new #hashtag and it should show up on your drop down list.

Once you start keeping track of your expenses, you can see your budget numbers moving according to the money you spent so far. Remember, you can always edit your budget, anytime. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to contact us. We want to make sure this budgeting tool works for you and helps you reach your financial goals!

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Recently, I lost my wallet. I don’t even remember the last time I lost my wallet because it was so long ago. My initial reaction was disbelief. “No, it must be here – somewhere” I said to myself. I tried to think of the last time I used my wallet. It was well over three hours ago! Yikes! Now, I’m sitting in my apartment with an empty purse. After the initial stage of denial, the next stage was panic. How many cards do I have in my wallet? Was it two or three cards and a debit card?  I had to think carefully. Once I determined the number, I started to call the banks to deactivate my credit cards and debit card. Funny enough, whoever found my wallet started to use my credit cards.  The reason I know this is because the nice customer service representatives asked me to verify my recent purchases. For example:

Bank employee: ”How about this $4.95 at Starbucks?”

Bank employee: ”How about this $62.95 at Duane Reade?”

Bank employee: “How about his one – $80.34” at White Castle?

If you’re like me, my short term memory is unreliable. I don’t remember what I had for breakfast this morning, let alone what I purchased the last couple of days. Luckily, I keep track of every purchase using my Birdy account. I was able to log on to the website and easily verify which purchases I did make and which purchases I did not. It was an unexpected usefulness that I did not think of. The $4.95 at Starbucks – that’s me. The $62.95 at Duane Reade – not me. And neither is the $80.34 at White Castle. Whoever stole my wallet had a king’s feast at White Castle!

Hope this helps! Keep the Birdy in mind the next time you need to verify purchases.

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You can add the Birdy mobile app to your iphone or ipod home screen in three easy steps!

First, open a web browser and type in http://m.thebirdy.com. Basil should be the first image you see. Along the bottom of the screen should be a row of icons.

Second, press the middle icon with the box and arrow. Pressing that icon should pull up your home screen. The Birdy automatically appears with “add to home screen”. Press the Birdy icon and it will take you to a confirmation page. Press the “add” button on the top right hand corner. AND

Viola! The Birdy should show up on your home screen.

Adding the Birdy to your home screen lets you access the web app quickly and easily. Once you sign in, you can stayed signed in by pressing the check box.

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Check our snazzy new graphs!

Well, what’s new?

- Bolder colors!

- Pie chart or bar graph! Whichever you fancy.

- Option to see purchases, expenses or income graphs.

         Purchases graph – All of our members have a “What you spent the most money on: purchases”. Here you can see a

breakdown of your monthly purchases.

         Expenses & Income – Our premium subscribers can create two additional graphs – one for expenses and one for income.

These two additional graphs gives you a complete picture of your saving and spending habits!

- Amount of money spent and percentages! (You can do this by placing the cursor over a slice or bar)

- Plus two additional features – “Save this graph” and “Edit this graph”.

“Save this graph” lets you choose which purchases you want to see in pie or graph form. You can choose all purchases or

select a few you that you want to focus on. It’s up to you! Just remember to press the “save this graph” button to save your

settings.

“Edit this graph” allows you to see all your purchases at once, but it also allows you to see specific purchases for

subcategories. For example, if I wanted to see how much money I spent on #dinner vs. #coffee, I click on “Edit this graph”

and click the boxes “dinner” and “coffee” and press the button “Update your graph”. This will show me which category I

spent the most money on. My graph tells me I have a coffee addiction! Well, let’s say I want to see which brand has more of

my hard earned money. I click on “Edit your graph” and unclick “dinner”, but click on all the coffee brands I spent my

money on (ie. Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts). Don’t forget to press “Update your graph”. The next graph shows me a

breakdown of which brands I spent my money on.

That’s it for now. Hope you like the new graphs! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us.

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Have you used the Birdy mobile version yet? Well if you haven’t, what are you waiting for? Below is a step-by-step how-to guide!

The home page shows a number of summary information. We want you to get a quick snapshot of how you’re doing.

- First item you see is today’s date followed by a summary of your streak. Well what’s a streak? The Birdy streak is the number of days  you’ve entered your spending into your account. If you want to learn more about it, check out our how streaks work page on our website.

- The item that comes up as your scroll down is the amount of money “you spent this month”. And if you’re a premium subscriber, it shows your “income” and your “expenses” items for the month.

Now, the bottom of the page shows various additional icons. Below is a quick explanation of what the icons are for.

 ICONS

The list icon shows you in list form your purchases for the month. You can use the arrows before and after the date to view different purchases and purchase dates. Pressing on this icon also allows you to EDIT your purchases. So edit away!

The bar graph icon shows your purchases in graph form with percentages and dollar amounts of your purchases.

The plus icon let you ADD purchases. It should direct you to a box asking “What did you buy today?” Enter in your purchase like you would on the website. This page also shows the date of when you made your purchase. After you’ve entered in all your purchases, please don’t forget to press the SAVE YOUR PURCHASES button. Otherwise, it will not be entered into your account.

For premium subscribers – you can tell the Birdy whether it’s an expense by checking the box.

Pressing this icon will allow you to contact us! If you have questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact us. We would love to hear from you.

Finally, if you have an iphone or ipod touch, you can add the Birdy to your home screen. Instead of having to open your browser and then enter in the web address, you can press the Birdy icon and bam! it takes you right to the site.

Below are pictures of what your screens should look like.

That’s all for now! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

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We have a new updated version of the Birdy on your mobile phone! Below are some answers to your burning questions about our updated version.

What is it? – The Birdy mobile version lets you enter your expenses right away by using your smart phone. As long as you have internet access and a web browser (Firefox, Google Chrome etc.) you can access it anytime anywhere. For example, if you’re in a coffee shop and you just purchased a $2 cup of joe, you can enter it directly to your Birdy account using your ipod touch or iphone.

How is it different from the original mobile version? We’ve designed it so that it’s easier to access & use the Birdy. We’ve streamlined the mobile version so that you can enter purchases and expenses easily and quickly. It works just like The Birdy website but on your mobile phone. Imagine the possibilities!

When is it available? It’s available now. If you have a smart phone, internet and a browser (Firefox, Google Chrome) go to http://m.thebirdy.com. You don’t need to enter www AND don’t forget the “m” in front of thebirdy.com. The “m” stands for mobile.

Why should I use it? We built the mobile version so that you have direct access to your account anytime and anywhere.

Can I still use the website to enter in my expenses? Of course! The Birdy is still the same! You can get the daily reminder email, or you can send us your purchases via SMS.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us! We would be more than happy to help!

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We are wrapping up our Tips from Power Users segment. We have a few more useful tips to share with you. So, let’s finish this segment with a bang!

Tip # 1
One member wisely says, “Knowing what’s spent is the smartest way to spend.” For example, looking at your graph and realizing that you’ve already spent $25 for lunch and it’s only Wednesday might convince you to bring your lunch to work on Thursday and Friday. This way, you can save a few more dollars. Perhaps, the following week you might decide to limit your lunch spending to $20.

Tip #2
Make a habit out of “carefully reporting your purchases. It’s easy via email if you have a mobile phone, so that’s a safe place to focus on.” It takes less than 10 seconds to report a purchases via text message or email. That way, you don’t have to worry or you don’t have to try to remember what you purchased at the end of the day. This saves you time and memory.

Tip #3
“Just use the Birdy for a month. It takes time to get use to it, but once you do this you’ll start discovering the power of The Birdy!” We love this tip! Our hope is that our members are maximizing all the tools the Birdy has to offer.

We want to thank our Power Users for sending in their tips! We had fun reading, writing and sharing your thoughts. If you have any useful tips, feel free to let us know!

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