u/Dev_Gohil_

Hey everyone,

I’m a student building Villix, a finance app that goes beyond just showing transaction totals.

Most apps tell you:

“$58 spent at Target.”

Villix tries to answer:

What did you actually buy?

Was it worth it?

Could you have gotten it cheaper somewhere else?

Right now Villix already supports:

• Plaid bank syncing

• Receipt scanning + OCR item extraction

• Real time transaction syncing

• Reflections like “Worth It” or “Regret”

• Expense calendar + insights

• Split transactions

• Item level tracking and price memory

One feature I recently added is smart item suggestions.

If a user makes a transaction but doesn’t scan the receipt, Villix checks the global items database for that merchant and suggests likely purchased items based on previous community receipt data.

So instead of an empty “$12 Starbucks transaction,” users can potentially reconstruct what they bought with one tap.

The bigger vision is building a spending intelligence platform powered by item level purchase data, behavioral reflection, and AI.

Imagine being able to:

• Compare prices of the same product across stores

• Ask AI questions about your spending habits

• Track recurring behavior patterns

• Build a real memory of your purchases over time

I’ve built most of the product myself across SwiftUI, backend, Firestore, Plaid integration, OCR pipelines, and infrastructure.

Now I’m looking for people who genuinely want to build:

• AI engineers

• Backend/full stack developers

• UI/UX designers

• Growth/marketing people

• Content creators

• Anyone excited about consumer fintech

Not looking for résumés. Just people excited to build something meaningful long term.

Would love to connect.

I’ve been working on a personal finance app called Villix for the past few months and just pushed a new update.

Right now it’s pretty small:

32 users total

16 have connected their bank

8 are actually active

What’s weird is all the feedback so far has been positive. People say they like it, think it’s useful, etc. but no one’s really pointing out what’s bad or what needs to change.

Which probably just means I don’t have enough real usage yet.

The idea behind Villix is to go beyond just tracking expenses. It pulls in transactions, lets you scan receipts, and helps you actually think about your spending a bit more.

At this point I’m just trying to get more people using it and get honest feedback, not just “this is cool”.

If you’ve built something before, how did you get people to be more critical?

And if anyone’s down to try it and give real feedback, I’d really appreciate it.

I recently launched Villix, a personal finance app I’ve been building.

The idea started because most finance apps either feel too complicated, lock useful features behind subscriptions, or only show basic bank transactions.

I wanted to build something that gives people the core features they expect from apps like Rocket Money, YNAB, and other expense trackers, but with a cleaner experience and no ads.

Villix includes:

Expense tracking

Monthly budgets

Receipt scanning

Spending insights

Transaction history

Manual transactions

Bank transaction tracking

Purchase reflections

Item level receipt breakdowns

The part I’m most excited about is the item layer.

Most finance apps tell you:

“Walmart $42.18”

But they do not tell you what you actually bought.

With Villix, users can scan receipts and turn purchases into item level history. Over time, this can help people understand what they repeatedly buy, what they regret buying, and where their money actually goes.

I’m also working on an Items Map, where scanned receipt data can help build a community powered view of real item prices nearby.

For example, imagine searching for “eggs,” “Red Bull,” “protein bars,” or “shampoo” and seeing where people recently found those items and at what price.

The goal is not just another budget app.

The goal is to make spending more transparent by combining expense tracking, receipts, item prices, and better UI into one simple app.

Still early, but I’m excited to keep improving it.

Genuinely curious how other students are handling money day to day because I feel like no system ever sticks for me.

Like do you actually use a budgeting app or is it just vibes and checking your bank balance and hoping for the best? I've downloaded like three different apps and abandoned all of them within a week. Also tried a spreadsheet once, lasted two days.

What's the part that trips you up the most? For me it's food — I'll be so good all week and then spend $40 on one dinner out and it's just gone. But I feel like subscriptions are also sneaky, you forget you have them until the charge hits. Or splitting things with roommates, that's its own whole thing.

Just curious what people are actually doing vs what we think we should be doing lol

I’m curious how other students manage money day to day.

Do you use a budgeting app, notes, spreadsheet, banking app, Splitwise, or just check your bank balance when needed?

Also, what’s the most annoying part? Food spending, subscriptions, roommates, receipts, impulse purchases, or something else?

I’m curious how other students manage money day to day.

Do you use a budgeting app, notes, spreadsheet, banking app, Splitwise, or just check your bank balance when needed?

Also, what’s the most annoying part? Food spending, subscriptions, roommates, receipts, impulse purchases, or something else?

I’m curious how other students manage money day to day.

Do you use a budgeting app, notes, spreadsheet, banking app, Splitwise, or just check your bank balance when needed?

Also, what’s the most annoying part? Food spending, subscriptions, roommates, receipts, impulse purchases, or something else?

After Mint shut down I’ve been trying a bunch of alternatives, and honestly none of them really stuck.

Either the bank syncing feels off, or the manual entry is just annoying enough that I stop using it after a few days. And even when they work, I still feel like I’m only seeing totals, not what I’m actually spending money on.

I always thought I had a decent sense of my spending, but when I actually paid attention to individual purchases, it was kind of eye opening how much random stuff adds up.

At some point I just built something for myself because I couldn’t find anything that worked the way I wanted.

It’s pretty simple, but the main thing I focused on was:

actually seeing what I buy
noticing repeat spending
and realizing what I regret buying later

It’s still early, but it’s already been more useful for me than the other apps I tried.

Curious what you guys ended up switching to and if anything actually works long term?