# A budget for shared homes

> Designing a budgeting tool for people who share a flat, so splitting bills stops being a monthly argument.

[Work](https://portfolio.vagejs.com/work/)

A budgeting tool for flatmates that turns who-owes-whom into one clear number.

Role

Product designer

Year

2024

Length

4 months

## The problem

Flatmates kept a shared spreadsheet that one person maintained and everyone else ignored. At the end of each month, someone did the maths, and someone else disagreed with it.

## What we tried

Our first version showed every expense and every person's share. It was accurate and nobody read it. In interviews, people only wanted to know one thing: do I owe money, and how much?

## What shipped

-   **One number on the home screen:** what you owe, or what you're owed, updated after every new expense.
-   **Bills that repeat.** Rent and internet are entered once and split the same way every month.
-   **Settle up, not pay up.** The app suggests the fewest transfers to make everyone even, instead of a payment for every expense.

## What I learned

Fairness matters more than precision. Letting people mark an expense as "split however we agreed" did more for trust than any rounding rule.

More work

-   [Tram tickets in two taps](https://portfolio.vagejs.com/work/tram-tickets/)
-   [Reminders plants can live with](https://portfolio.vagejs.com/work/plant-care/)