Show HN: My project PocketLoot (direct link) | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: My project PocketLoot (direct link)

pocketloot.com

4 pointsdarkxanthos6 comments

I struggled to work out what your project does, I think a better screenshot could help. The text in the screen shot looks like it's telling me what my daily budget it is which if tat's what the app is about then it sounds quite good. Maybe if that stood out more? Also, I'd assumed it was a phone app, am I wrong? If so and it is about tracking my expenditure during the day then I think a phone app would be preferrable.

Best of luck.

Thanks, yeah it's all about what is my daily budget and how much have I saved this pay period.

Rather than tracking all of your expenditures you just tell PocketLoot what your account balance is. That way you don't have to keep track of everything and you only update it when you want.

A mobile version is in the works for those who prefer to update expenses through out the day and who want to play what-if with their daily budget and potentially large expenses.

Thanks for checking it out!

I like the fact that I can start using it without having to sign up, and that you let me create an account later if I want to save my data.

I'm not entirely sure what I would use this for though. It seems like I have to constantly update your site with the amount of money I spend, and that is a lot of work just to be able to have a daily budget calculated for me.

I use mint.com, and I don't have to enter anything, everything is just automatically pulled from my credit cards and bank accounts. They let me set monthly budgets for different categories of spending, and let me see if I am on track for my budget or if I need to reduce my spending to meet the budget.

That's great feedback thanks. People who actually use this really only update it when they think they went over their daily budget. Maybe the use of the word "daily" is a bit misleading?

For me personally, what I never got from mint is how much can I spend today and how much have I saved this pay period. That's a key reason why I built this.

Thanks again! I <3 critiques. :)

aha, I think I get it. Cool. Are you going to gamify (everyone else is!) it? Ie awards for a streak of weeks/months not spending more than earned etc?

I'd suggest some bullet points about how it works on the landing page, ie 1) Enter your account balance 2) Update your account balance when you want (weekly, monthly, every St Swithins day) 3) Keep track of how much you're spending and how much you're saving each month.

Great points!

Yeah I'd like to allow people to do the following: * When a user saves money in a pay period allow them to share a tip with everyone else about how they did it. (along with an optional shout out to FaceBook/Twitter) * Definitely awards.. I think they'd be great to show to friends and family. * I'd like to also trend the data so I can show people what their minimum typical daily spending is so they know what a realistic daily budget for them looks like. * Improve communicating of the core mechanics and how this is different.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com