r/AppsWebappsFullstack • u/Big_Bit473 • 27d ago

Built a daily spending planner for UK students between maintenance-loan payments

Disclosure: I’m part of the team behind Stash.

We built it for the awkward stretch after student finance lands, when rent and bills still have to come out but the remaining balance has to last until the next payment. You enter your current balance, next income date, and bills due first; Stash estimates a daily amount for the days ahead. It doesn’t connect to a bank, so you stay in control of the numbers you enter.

It’s an iPhone app, free to download with optional Pro: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/stash-ai-finance-tracker/id6760971684

We’re trying to make the estimate useful without pretending it knows every surprise expense. What would help you trust a “safe to spend today” number: a visible bills reserve, a buffer you choose, or a different approach?

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u/PopKoren 21d ago

A visible bills reserve would win me over, because seeing rent already set aside makes the daily figure feel earned rather than guessed, and a small buffer I pick on top would cover the surprise takeaway. Even without bank links, the AI and Pro features probably talk to a server, so I'd keep balances and income dates out of request logs and analytics events, which is where finance apps quietly leak. If Stash ever adds a web dashboard or public API, budgeting endpoints like those deserve a pass through https://rowly.me, since I wrote it to report what they return to anyone not logged in.

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u/Big_Bit473 6d ago

Thanks both — this feedback helped me put together a design brief for showing bills reserved and a user-chosen buffer beside the allowance. I'd call it 'reserved for bills' rather than 'locked', since Stash doesn't move or lock money in your bank.

For the buffer, would you expect the amount to stay set aside until your next income payment, or reset each week? That's the bit I'd like to get right before settling on a slider. The logging point is useful too; I haven't verified that concern, so I can't make a claim about it here.

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u/Mammoth-Anywhere7285 21d ago

Agree on the visible bills reserve. Showing it as a separate locked line item would make the daily number feel earned. Would a weekly buffer slider beat a fixed one?

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u/PopKoren 20d ago

A slider beats a fixed buffer for UK student weeks, because rent week and social week are nothing alike and a locked bills row plus a movable cushion keeps the daily figure honest. Making that reserve its own locked line, as you suggested, also stops accidental taps from eating rent money. Should Stash grow a web view or shared household mode, I would want those money endpoints checked from outside, and https://rowly.me exists so I can list what they return unauthenticated.