WasteLvl
Wasting money levels up your lifeA log book for the money you wasted. For iPhone and iPad.
If you are going to spend the money anyway, you may as well be left with satisfaction instead of guilt.
WasteLvl asks what you spent it for before it asks what you bought.
Same purchase, different sentence
What you usually say I bought snacks again.
What WasteLvl asks you to say I bought snacks to make myself feel good.
You bought the same thing. The only difference is that you put into words what it was for. And yet what stays with you afterwards is not the same.
When you add a record, WasteLvl asks you to pick Growth, Reward or Bond before you type the amount. You cannot save without choosing. It may look like an extra step, but this one step is the whole app.
Do it a few times and it starts to follow you out of the app. You catch yourself at the till, thinking for a second about what this one is for. That is all it does.
How it works
1. When, and how much
The date and the amount. Nothing to categorise, no budget to set up first.
2. What for
Growth, Reward or Bond. Before it asks how much you spent, it asks what the money gave you. This is the app.
3. What you bought
The name of the thing comes last. The order is backwards on purpose.
Why take the side of wasting money
Spending too much is a problem. I agree. But I think saving too much is just as much of a problem. There are people who are good at putting money away and have no idea how to spend it.
My own hobbies — motorbikes, drinking, building apps — are the reason I can earn a living now. At the time, every one of them was wasted money.
Advertising was the same. If I had stayed careful with money I would never have paid for it. I only learned that paying for ads does the work of a salesperson after I had actually paid. Someone who can only save never takes that step.
I think it is the same as playing. Playing too much is bad. But people who never play do not get to do interesting work. Wasting money is like that.
You decide what to do with it
There is no budget. No warning. It will never say "you have ¥12,000 left to waste this month." Because I do not know what the right answer is.
If looking at your records makes you want to cut back, good. If it makes you want to spend more, also good. The only thing this app has to say is that wasting money is not necessarily bad — everything after that is yours to decide.
Looking back, not analysing
No average price per purchase, no month-over-month percentage. Both of those numbers only mean something if you have already decided to spend less. This is a status screen, not a spreadsheet.
One screen, drawn dot by dot
Every icon is hand-drawn pixel art. No system symbols, no stock images. The font is a bitmap font, and every size is a multiple of four so the dots stay sharp.
Your records stay yours
Everything is stored on your device and synced through your own iCloud. There is no account to create and no server of ours in between. You can export everything as JSON at any time.
Made to move abroad with you
If the currency you live in changes, you can convert every past record at a rate you type in yourself. You are shown the total and the LEVEL before and after, so nothing changes behind your back.
FAQ
Is this a budgeting app?
No. A budgeting app exists to help you spend less. This one does not judge your spending at all. It records it and turns it into a LEVEL.
So you are telling me to spend more?
No. It tells you neither to spend nor to stop. There is no target amount. What you make of your own records is up to you.
What are Growth, Reward and Bond?
The three kinds of experience you can buy with money. Growth is knowledge and ability, Reward is fun and happiness, Bond is memories and the people around you. There are only three and you cannot add more — the point is to choose quickly, not to file things perfectly.
Is it free?
Yes. Every feature is free. The app shows a small banner at the bottom of the screen.
Do I need an account?
No. There is nothing to sign up for. Your records live on your device and sync through your own iCloud if you are signed in.
Which currencies are supported?
Japanese yen and US dollars for now, with more to come. All of your records use a single currency at a time; if you move abroad you can convert them all at once.