Most budgeting apps track where your money goes. Mindspend tracks how you feel about it. Every purchase gets one of three emotion tags: worth it, okay, or regret. No categories, no bank linking, no complicated setup. Just one simple question after each purchase: how did that feel? After a few weeks, you see your spending patterns through a completely different lens. It's not about restricting yourself. It's about understanding yourself.
Hey PH! I'm Alex, dev behind Mindspend.
Quick backstory: I've always been okay with money on paper, but never really felt in control. Like, I'd check my bank and think "where did all that go?" Not because I was overspending on anything crazy. Just a bunch of small stuff that added up.
I tried budgeting apps. You know the drill. Connect your bank, set 15 categories, feel guilty when you go over. I'd last maybe a week before uninstalling.
So I tried something different. What if instead of tracking categories, I just tracked how I felt about each purchase? Worth it, okay, or regret. Three options. Takes 2 seconds.
Turns out that's all I needed. After a couple weeks I could literally see that like a third of my spending was stuff I regretted. Not big purchases. Just random stuff on autopilot. Once I saw the pattern, it kind of fixed itself.
I built it into an app because my friends kept asking for it. It's free right now, no ads, works on both iOS and Android.
Honestly just excited to share it and hear what you all think. Happy to answer any questions!
Hello Alex! I hate the feeling "where did my money go?" and I have noticed when I pay cash/transfer, I am more responsible, while when im paying with credit card im extremely irresponsible. So I was thinking it would be great to be able to track the method of payment, so if i really see a trend with my CC I would start leaving it at home!. Besides that I would like to add another choice on the feelings like "Needed it" there are some things I hate to pay but its necessary, not like a subcategory but an expense that is a non negotiable in my life and cant be decreased (or changed), for example my student loan monthly fee, rent, insurance , etc. I honestly dont feel at my best paying it, but its a non negotiable.
Sounds like a great idea to solve overspending, and it would be nice for it to sync with budget trackers people already may use (e.g. Notion) for bigger picture budgeting / factoring in necessary spending such as rent and utility bills. How does Mindspend know your transactions, do you have to manually input them?
Curious what happens with "okay" over time - does it tend to drift toward regret or worth it as people use the app longer? That middle category feels like where the most interesting behavioral data would live.
Alexandru Mogic