Why Does Aimee Love Spend?
With two software engineers as co-founders, we spend most of our time writing code to improve the capabilities of Spend. Lately, as we feel the product is becoming more and more feature-complete, we’re realizing it’s time to get back to the roots of why we’re building Spend in the first place: to help people with their money. So, inspired by the user researchers that we’ve both worked with and admire, we reached out to some of our most active customers to hear what they had to say. Below is a summary of our interview with Aimee, a power-user that has made invaluable contributions to our roadmap.
Hello again, Aimee. Thanks for taking the time to chat with me. How did you hear about Spend?
Prior to Spend, I was using Mint. But when Mint shut down, I was on the hunt for something else. I saw Spend mentioned in a Reddit thread and took a closer look. I liked that you were responsive to my inquiries. I also liked that Spend was free.
But there are many Mint alternatives. Why did you choose us?
I haven’t been a fan of traditional budgeting apps like YNAB, for example. The paradigm of putting every expense into a category just doesn't work. I like how Spend focuses on my discretionary spending as a single bucket. At the time, you were also advertising a glanceable widget and that sounded great.
I also like the weekly cadence of Spend. My husband and I talk about our money more frequently than once per month.
Well, the glanceable Safe to Spend widget is almost done. We’ll make sure to get you on the Android pre-release so you can take it for a spin. Do you mind sharing a bit more about how you use Spend?
I use the recover function quite a bit. For example, we just booked a vacation and instead of just ignoring these expenses, I’m able to actually recover the cost. It’s super helpful.
Spend calculates my income based on the trailing month, which I really like. My husband had to be off work for a medical issue and my income varies from check-to-check. It’s really helpful to see an accurate reflection of what our income has been so we can adjust our spending in real-time.
We love to hear that Spend has been working for you. What would you like other people to know about Spend?
Spend is a system that’s interactive, time saving, and keeps budgeting front of mind on a daily basis. Where you may log onto other apps, sink a bunch of time into, and then forget about them, Spend is always right there with you, with minimal time investment.
How has Spend impacted your relationship to your finances?
I feel a lot more empowered. I feel like I’m being more proactive.
There are always financial stressors. But [with Spend] I can navigate through them vs. constantly being stressed or anxious.
Anything else you’d like to share?
Other budgeting apps can have too much by way of configuration to set up and maintain. That just isn’t sustainable for a lot of people, myself included. Given all the work, it isn’t uncommon to give up on over-complicated budgeting systems and that can feel defeating. Spend strikes a nice balance because you can get that “everything in its right place” feeling, but in a way that is easy to manage.
This interview is a summary of a video call between Avand and Aimee on Oct 29th, 2024. It was published on Nov 7th with permission. Thanks again, Aimee, for sharing your experience with us!