[rgovind]

For some of us in Bay area, we pay $5000 in rent, utilities, day care etc. I, by and large can't optimize on these things. I can only optimize on groceries, restaurant eating, vacation/weekend outings and few things like that. So, I hope these personal finance apps remove rent, utilities, day care etc from their analysis.

Also, one feature I would pay for is this. When I am entering a Walmart or Target or Whole Foods, it should warn me that I spent 'x' amount on groceries last week and that I should keep my spending below $y to stay within budget. Somehow, I see this feature missing in all apps I see so far.

[imalex]

Yup, Penny tries to focus on your discretionary spending since that's where you have the most agency. She tells you both your non-bills spending (assuming bills are mandatory) and your total spending, so you can get a sense of your spending that isn't basic needs. We also have spending goals which are curated to be mostly discretionary spending (eating out, department stores, etc).

[jamiesonbecker]

I think the parent was stating that it'd be neat (if possible) if Penny detected your location and flagged you with an geolocated alert at that point. Like a giant "really?! Target again?! You just spent $20 here yesterday!" (If it already does that or if I'm misinterpreting, please forgive!)

[DLarsen]

I've had a project on the back-burner for a while which tried to embrace this notion that most of your day-to-day transactions are outside the scope of optimization. Instead of importing all the transactions into view, it only showed transactions in categories where you were trying to change (or measure) spending behavior. If, for example, I don't intend to change my home water consumption... then in the context of personal finances I really want that left out of my tool.