I made a budgeting app…
How many times have I sworn I’d start budgeting, made a convoluted spreadsheet or downloaded some fancy app, tinkered around with it for a couple hours, and then never touched it again? It took me most of my self-supporting life to finally actually commit to keeping a budget. That’s like…two decades, but I found a tool that works for me. I made it myself.
We’re constantly reminded that we live in a culture of short attention spans and instant gratification. Social media content is there for a quick hit; shopping apps operate on 1-button checkout and delivery in hours. Why don’t budgeting apps follow this trend? Most of the top tools out there are bloated with dashboards and features that demand you sit down for hours to map out at least a month in advance. But who has the time, foresight, or mental bandwidth for that kind of planning?
Having tunnel vision for the short-term makes sense in this economy where everything feels temporary and unstable – jobs, housing, benefits, even health. How can one project 30 days out if even the next 24 hours feels in flux? Even for those in stable positions, the threat of economic uncertainty feels like it could be just around the corner. Long-term planning seems to offer few real guarantees.
Still, most budgeting apps are built with pre-existing financial stability in mind. They cater to users who already have steady paychecks, routine expenses, and a comfortable buffer between income and bills. They’re built to help with things like fine-tuning savings goals, tracking discretionary spending, or planning for future vacations. These features assume you already have money, not that you’re trying to figure out how to hold on to it.
YNAB, for example, asks users to allocate their income into top-level categories – bills, needs, and wants – and then into neat little subcategories like rent, groceries, self-care, and travel. But for people who see their finances through a paycheck-to-paycheck lens, spending often spikes right after payday and tapers off as money runs out. The way I see it, category-based forecasting doesn’t aim to change that habit, it only spreads it out. Not to mention that if your income isn’t stretching far beyond the basics, you don’t have much to allocate in the first place. Across the board, budgeting apps also tend to require connecting bank accounts, paying subscription fees, and figuring out complicated dashboards. For apps with more complex data functions, the learning curve can be steep.
But what about people working irregular hours, getting paid in cash, and living off thin margins? What about people who simply don’t have the time to set aside each month to plan out their financial projections in speculative detail? When it comes to budgeting, managing wealth and navigating precarity are two entirely different missions, and should be approached as such.
What could a more effective budgeting tool look like?
Here’s what I believe:
- Budgeting should be daily. Daily insights are what people need when conditions change fast. It should be able to answer the question, “Can I buy this today and still be okay a few days from now?”
- Privacy should be the default. No logins, no account linking, no hidden data capture.
- Accessibility should be core. It should be offline-friendly, mobile-first, and most importantly, free.
These aren’t just ideals. They’re design choice that are the foundation of the humble but useful budgeting tool I made myself called dailyallowance.
Contrary to what Big Tech has allowed us to believe, useful apps don’t need to cost. Massive server farms, complex data pipelines, or pricey legal and third-party service agreements are not necessary when users own and store their own data locally on their devices, and profiting off sales or ad revenue isn’t a hidden core function. dailyallowance is lightweight, intentionally free of bloated integrations, and designed to run without tracking, syncing, or subscriptions.
Install dailyallowance
dailyallowance is a Progressive Web App (PWA), which means you don’t need an app store account or a subscription to get it. It installs directly to your phone in seconds.
How to install the app on your phone:
On iPhone (Safari):
- Open budget.tomcatlabs.com.
- Tap the Share button (square with arrow) in the bottom middle.
- Select Add to Home Screen.
On Android (Chrome or Firefox):
- Open budget.tomcatlabs.com.
- Tap the three-dot menu in the top right.
- Select Add to Home screen or Install App.
The app runs locally on your device, so you can open it offline.