I worked for two years and saved almost nothing.

It wasn't one big mistake.

It was shopping in a fever. A quick night out that turned into an expensive one. Eating out again and again, because I was stressed, or bored, or trying to impress someone. Small things, over and over, until the month was gone and so was the money I meant to save.

The goal I didn't believe in

The bigger problem was that I never had a clear goal. Or I had one, and I didn't really believe it would happen. I wasn't fully convinced, so when the moment came to choose between the goal and the thing in front of me, the thing in front of me won. Every time.

A goal you don't believe in doesn't protect anything. That's the part I got wrong for two years, and it's why Delveni starts by asking how sure you are.

The trip

On a recent trip I blew through my budget. This time I noticed something: there was an emotion behind the spending. I could have turned it into guilt, and guilt would have ruined the rest of the trip.

Instead I looked at what was left, re-planned the remaining days, and changed a few things. Then I enjoyed the rest of the trip. It felt powerful. I could adapt without wrecking my mood, and I learned something about myself in the process.

That's what I wanted in an app. Not a scolding. A way to bend the plan and keep going.

What I wanted to understand

Behind every purchase there's a reason, and the reason says more about you than the amount does. I wanted to see mine.

I also wanted my money to go where it pays me back the most. Not optimizing for the sake of optimizing. Just doing the things that actually benefit me, and noticing the ones that don't.

So I built it

Delveni asks for a goal you believe. It lets you log what you spend in a few seconds, with one tap for what was going on. When you slip, it re-plans the month instead of judging it. Two days after a purchase it asks if it was worth it, and over time your answers become your own list of what deserves your money.

It's early and it's rough in places.

Naoufal

Or read the first post: what I got wrong, and what I'd change.