The Origin Story
I built a budgeting tool after realizing spreadsheets were not the real problem
My brother and I decided to combine our finances.
All income and expenses — pooled together. Suddenly every dollar actually mattered, because if I screwed up, it affected him too.
We each had our own disaster of an Excel sheet at first. I'd dig through bank statements and manually merge everything just to figure out where the money was even going.
The thing that surprised me most wasn't the automation.
It was just being able to see the numbers clearly. That alone changed how we spent. Kind of embarrassing how much of a difference it made, honestly.
Eventually I started turning our expense list into something structured — then building a small tool on top of it. Super basic at first. Income, expenses, and a rough timeline of what the balance would look like going forward.
The thing that made it click: instead of logging every coffee, we just occasionally punch in the real bank balance and let that reset things. You still get a pretty accurate picture without going insane tracking $4 transactions.
The other thing that helped — seeing projected balances. Knowing what your account looks like two weeks out genuinely changes whether you buy something today.
Still use it every day. It grew way past what I originally built it to do.
Why the structure works:
- Short opening lines create pace and pull the reader in
- The surprise pivot ("wasn't the automation") is your hook — isolated so it lands
- The $4 transaction line is the most relatable moment — it earns trust
- Ending flat and quiet ("Still use it every day") feels more credible than a sales close