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BudgetBird
A manual budgeting app that stays on your phone.
Team
Solo
Timeline
1 week
Tools
Role
Product & Interaction Designer + Builder
Figma, Muse, Procreate, Tiiny Host.
Live Product: trackybird.tiiny.site
Overview
The problem
I wanted to track spending manually, but setup steps, upgrade prompts, and unclear spending limits interrupted that simple task.
The solution
BudgetBird brings weekly or monthly budgets, saved expenses, and English/Spanish switching into a free manual tracker with locally stored data.
The delivery
Launched in 24 hours; refined over one week through eight iterations, real-device checks, and 103 Playwright tests.
Free manual budgeting, without an account or bank connection.
Budget data is stored locally in your browser.
The product
Go straight to creating a budget.
BudgetBird opens directly into budget creation. Weekly and monthly cycles let people choose a period that fits their cash flow, without creating an account or connecting a bank.
Make repeat expenses easier to record.
The entry sheet prioritizes thumb-friendly input and saved expense templates. Reusing a recurring expense reduces repeated typing and keeps daily logging focused on the task.
Switch languages without losing clarity.
A single toggle switches the interface between English and Spanish. Flexible containers make room for longer Spanish labels, keeping actions readable in both languages.
The starting point
A simple spending check took too much effort.
BudgetBird began with a problem in my own routine: I wanted to record expenses and see how much I had left to spend.
While trying Monarch and Fleur, I encountered setup steps, subscription prompts, and friction in manual entry. Those experiences shaped the brief: make it easy to set a limit, log spending, and return to a clear balance.
Monarch’s setup
All roads lead to a paywall?
Why Build Another Budget Tracker?
While looking for a straightforward manual expense tracker, I audited mainstream apps and discovered a frustrating market gap: tools either forced heavy automated bank-syncing behind paywalls or punished manual trackers with dark-pattern ad interruptions.
| App | Primary Friction Point | UX Impact on the User |
|---|---|---|
| Monarch | Mandatory multi-step onboarding & bank-sync setup leading directly to a paywall. | High setup abandonment for users who just want manual control. |
| Fleur | Unintuitive expense typing, rigid single-budget structure, and upgrade ads on every launch. | High interaction cost and daily annoyance during a 5-second task. |
| BudgetBird (My Goal) | Zero-onboarding entry, flexible separate budgets, and ad-free local storage. | Sub-5-second expense logging with zero cognitive or privacy friction. |