I heard a CNN anchor say this evening that Campbell’s soup was the only stock that went up today.

I thought he was being facetious.

I was wrong.

Today, we find ourselves amid a potentially devastating economic crisis. Probably the worst thing we could do right now is to spend frivolously and throw our bank statements to the wayside.

This is why I like Mint. Think of it as a free, Web-based Quicken-like application that allows you to monitor your spending in real time and analyze where your money is going.

What’s Fresh About Mint

• Automatic linkage to your financial accounts. I was up and running with detailed analysis of my spending habits within 5 minutes.
• Provides you with a list of ways to save based on the state of your current finances. Recommends additional credit cards, etc. that can help you save money.
• Allows you to compare your spending in various categories (food, shopping, auto, etc.) to people in specific geographical locales. I can see how my spending on clothes, for instance, compares to other  Portlanders. The verdict: I have some work to do.

I love the idea of making money management easy for everyone – not just the most financial literate among us. Mint’s business model is also smart: linking users to personalized financial offers, allowing the company to gain revenue from referrals.

On the PR front, I think Mint has a prime opportunity on its hands, and would love to see the company communicate to the public how it can help them throughout this crisis: People are going to be looking for smart ways to make their dollars go further, and Mint is a simple and cost-effective (can’t beat free!) way to do just that.

Given it a try? Let me know what you think.

Welcome to Small But Fearsome Pixie, an intersection of marketing, PR, business and the personal tidbits of my own life. I’m getting everything organized and fiddling with WordPress, but will have more here soon. I’d appreciate any feedback on this journey – good and bad – so don’t hesitate to give me a shout at amy@smallbutfearsomepixie.com.

You ready? OK. Let’s get going with this thing.