Built from 30+ interviews with college students
First year off campus? Same. Neither of us can tell if we're okay.
You're in college, the meal plan's gone, and rent and groceries are yours now. There's still no straight answer to the only question that matters. You find out when the money's already gone.
We're college students building this. Nothing to install yet.
We asked 30+ students how money actually works for them.
Anonymised. Wording is theirs, unedited.
01
“At the end of the month I just open Chase and see that all my money's gone.”
Off campus, pays own rent 02
“It's going to change significantly next year. I'll be paying rent, buying groceries, and a lot of expenses will add up.”
Moving off campus 03
“I'd been paying for it for six months, about $75, and never used it. The whole time I was listening to free Spotify.”
Second year 04
“I don't want to think about how much money I got left. I just don't open the app.”
Third year 05
“I had about $2,700 saved, and then I looked at it a few months later and it was down to like a thousand.”
Works part-time 06
“I just keep a mental record of everything I'm spending. I know I should probably start budgeting.”
International student 07
“It was a boring 5 to 10 minutes and I just didn't have the motivation to do it.”
On why he abandoned his own spreadsheet 08
“I don't get to see my monthly expenditures. I have to sit and calculate it myself.”
Second year
Same story, thirty times.
01
It isn't about being broke.
The stress starts the month you begin paying your own rent and groceries, not the month you run low.
02
Everyone wants the view. Nobody wants the work.
Every person who built a spreadsheet or downloaded an app eventually stopped. The effort always outlasted the motivation.
03
It leaks quietly.
A forgotten subscription, ten small buys. Never much in the moment, obvious only once it's gone.
We're running a second round of interviews.
The first thirty told us the stress starts the month the bills become yours. Now we want to hear from people in the middle of that year, not remembering it afterwards.
Who we're looking for
- 01Paying your own rent and groceries for the first time this year
- 02Moving off campus in the next few months
- 03Tried a budgeting app or a spreadsheet, and stopped
Ten minutes, on your schedule. We ask questions, we don't pitch.
Help us build the thing we needed.
We're figuring out what actually helps in that first year on your own. Join the early list, or talk to us for ten minutes.