“The more you reduce friction, the easier it is to build habits.” – James Clear

Hey everyone,

I’ve been quietly building Spend Notes (formerly Spendflow, but Spend Notes just felt right). It’s a little app I’ve been working on bit by bit, inspired by the philosophy of The Design of Nothing and the beauty of minimal widgets. Today, I wanted to share some updates that feel like small wins on this journey to simplicity:

  • Adding a Transaction: It’s now as simple as typing. Just enter the amount, hit space, and add the category. Want to record a credit? Add a +. That’s it.

  • Export to Excel: You can now export your data to Excel and do whatever analysis your heart desires. Nothing fancy, just useful.

  • Currency Selection: You can now select your currency of choice. Going global, right?

  • Budgets: A small step toward being more mindful of spending. Set a budget, stay aware, and feel in control.

  • Widgets: A quick glance at your spending, right from your home screen. It’s the simplest way to stay on top of things.

I’ve also squashed some bugs along the way. My goal remains the same: to make Spend Notes the simplest way to track your spending.

Would love to hear what you think. Always open to feedback from folks who appreciate the beauty of less.

You can find the app here Spend Notes

Cheers,

    Mukundlal I tried it and I really like how simple it is good job!

    but I have one note that the 2×1 widget doesn’t show the numbers of the spending today as it’s cut off.

    I hope you make the widget suit the 2×1 size and it shows only today’s spending.

      AbdoMG thanks for the feedback. I will fix this in next release. 😊

      Mukundlal brother app looking good but need some improvements like app follow system dark and light theme.

      Alexshax, the cursor color is red. I tried different places, but it didn’t go well with the overall design. Can you suggest some areas where it will look good?

      Very good clean Interface. Love it.

      How do I add categories like Food, Travel, etc ?

      I downloaded it.

      But i need bigger Text 😅
      There is no need to have the text small as with a scrollview or recyclerviewer its no problem at all to scroll through the list.
      overall IMHO bigger GUI Elements. As Smartphones are small devices making the UI Elements is crucial (IMO).
      I think also that categories could be think. like
      Groceries
      - 23.0
      - 43.0
      - 21.0
      Vacation
      - 234.0 flight
      - 333.0 hotel
      - 102.0 Guidetour

      Categories could then be moved to the next day per default and deleted when not needed anymore.
      Also deleting seems to be buggy. When i try to delete/erase an item on top it will delete the word but before it gets to the Number it starts deleting from the last item.

      Look i like where this is going and but i would recommend looking at my first App that i build. Name is JustList on Playstore, it has a similar approach, but allows to set categories and makes adding and deleting very intuitiv. Also it does not only show the Sum of numbers but it also can give you the average. Which can be handy because like seeing the average spending on days and or months.

      Cheers

      @RahulPegwal 😁 That’s my testing device. I took the screen recording from it. I have my NP1 with my actual data.

      @LEPE Thanks for the feedback. It’s a work in progress. The bug you mentioned about deleting is known and since I created this for my personal use I never fixed it 😅.

      @belthur “How do I add categories like Food, Travel, etc ?” currently you can’t. this is just a note-taking app that acts as a ledger. But I will update as I get time. I don’t want to make it bulky as that’s the problem I faced when looking for an app to log my spending. Every app is loaded with a lot of things that create friction and multiple clicks

        Mukundlal it’s a really great app, although I have one suggestion, is it possible to add users to it, so they could also see and add the expenses? Because most of the times, people go out in groups and it’s hard to track how much should each person pay to the other 🥲

          Mukundlal I was looking for a good expenditure tracker and you made my job easier. Needs some work, but I already like it. Great job man💪🏻

          Wow, a lovely app! It’s so simple to use and track. Nice work and efforts 💪

          Looks good homie.

          I’d recommend a space rather than a comma between the date and month in the app.

          Otherwise, I’ll test drive it and post back.

          CharanSoma , Thanks for your suggestion! glad you like the app. Right now, it works entirely offline to keep things simple and free to use. Adding features like user accounts or shared expenses would require additional infrastructure, which comes with extra costs.

          Wow what a widget! 🔥 started to use it!

          14 days later

          Hi Everyone!

          How’s it going? Hope you’re all doing great! 😊

          I just wanted to drop in with a few quick updates that are now live in the beta channel:

          1. Improved UI: We’ve cleaned up the clutter and made some space—it’s all about keeping things neat and simple.


          1. Swipe Actions: Managing transactions just got a fun upgrade! Swipe right to edit, left to delete—feels kind of like Tinder for transactions, right? 😄


          1. Tags: Forget the hassle of categorizing manually. Just add a #tag to your spending, and boom, it’s done!


          1. Backup and Restore: This one’s experimental, but you can now locally back up and restore your data.

          2. Optimized Widget: You can now use the widget in 1:2 mode for better flexibility and ease.


          These changes are currently in beta, and after a few days of testing, we’ll be rolling them out to everyone. If you’re on the beta channel, check them out now and let us know what you think.

          By the way, is anyone here using the app daily? Would love to hear your feedback or ideas for what we should work on next!

          Cheers,