Hi everyone 👋 I built Budget Angel as part of a personal experiment. Recently I’ve been exploring how AI can help build small products that are not only useful, but also fun — while learning whether they can eventually become sustainable side projects. One pain point that kept coming up in conversations was impulse buying, especially with online shopping being just one click away. Many budgeting apps exist, but they usually tell you after the spending has already happened. So I wondered: What if we could introduce a gentle pause before the purchase? Budget Angel is a Chrome extension that detects when you’re about to buy something online and reminds you if the purchase exceeds your preset budget. But I’m also experimenting with something a bit playful. Instead of simply blocking purchases, the extension lets users collect pixel-art virtual versions of the items they considered buying. The idea is to test a small behavioral hypothesis: Could owning a virtual collectible version of something reduce the urge to buy the real thing? It’s a small experiment combining behavioral nudges, AI-assisted building, and a bit of gamification. I’m still in discovery mode and would love feedback from the community: Would this actually help reduce impulse buying? What features would make it more useful for you? Is the virtual collectible idea interesting, or just weird? 😅 If you try it out, I’d love to hear what you think. Thanks for checking it out 🙏

Budget Angel

Your Pixel Guardian Against Impulse Buying

Your Pixel Guardian Against Impulse Buying