Money under stress needs a different kind of thinking. Less shame. More visibility. Fewer heroic promises. More small systems that hold when life gets noisy.
When I wrote this app, I had a bad relationship with money.
I was earning more than enough of it, but somehow it just vanished. I didn't know why I lived week to week, why I had credit card debt. I knew I should have that account with 3–6 months of money if things go south, and yet most years I struggled to get through Christmas. In truth I found it so embarrassing. I knew people had things much worse than me, and yet the reality playing out in our bank accounts and my financial thinking wasn't much different: how am I going to make it through the next week? I knew there were two problems I needed to solve.
VISIBILITY
How much do we earn, and what are we spending? I needed to make spending money personal — if you like, alive — and monitoring it fun. When you pay with pay-wave, unconsciously spending $200 feels the same as $5. Hidden automatic payments are worse. Step one is find out where we're at.
PLAYING WHAT IF
In seconds you can create a new scenario, as simple or as complicated as you like, and explore what changes you can make. A subscription is not just $25 a month, it's $300 a year. Got 5 of them? That's $1,500 — or a holiday away, if you stop. Going back to work is not just the income you get, it's the income less the new clothes, the transport and the childcare. Stopping the morning latte is the credit card paid off by Christmas. Where could we apply the money if we used that spare bedroom and got a flatmate? I know we don't want too, but what if we did? I know the temptation is to say "I can do that on paper or in a spreadsheet", but usually people don't. I wrote this to be alive — keep the base budget up to date and you can play what-if over coffee, or on the train in the morning. It can be fun, with the app always with you, and totally empowering.
This is here for you know
This is here for you know, either on this site or through the Apple or Andrioid app. It was a hard lesson I learnt when I was younger, no one is coming to save us. This doesn't need to be hard, and one day might even be fun, but it's up to you to take action if you are ready. A subscription is as little as approx $3.95 (USD) a month or $27.85 a year, depending on your prefered currency.