ResiboKo: Track Real-World Spending Without Spreadsheets

The Moment I Stopped Hoarding Receipts

Here’s the honest version: I’ve tried every “track your expenses” hack out there.
Excel sheets, budgeting apps, even the classic “I’ll log it before bed” promise.
Then life happens—jeepney or Grab home, Jollijeep merienda, coffees “just to reward myself.”
Receipts vanish (or never existed in the first place), and by the time I get home, wala na—I forget.

So I built ResiboKo: a dead-simple, AI-powered way to log everyday spends as they actually happen—cash, coins, no-receipt life included. Snap, type, upload, or talk; the app logs and categorizes, then stitches your week into a digestible money story. No spreadsheets. No guilt. No mental overhead.

The Spark (and the Friction)

A friend shared an n8n workflow with me (Telegram bot + categorization + a Postgres DB). It worked, but it was… fragile. Configuring TG webhooks, managing database storage, and wrestling with state made it feel like I was babysitting a contraption instead of tracking money.

“What if I turn this workflow into a real mini-app—usable by anyone, including me on a jeep, half-asleep, holding coffee?”

That question sent me into a string of vibe-coding sessions. I wired things together with:

• n8n for the glue (ingestion, parsing, categorization),
• Google AI Studio for lightweight reasoning and labeling prompts,
• Firebase for auth + storage + real-time sync,
• A simple web front end where capture is one tap, not twelve.

And it works. Like… it actually works.

What ResiboKo Solves (For Me, Maybe For You Too)

The Problem

• We want to track expenses, but everyday life is messy.
• Cash-heavy small spends don’t come with scannable receipts.
• Traditional apps assume perfect inputs and tidy workflows. Our days aren’t tidy.

The Pivot

• ResiboKo is designed for life in motion:
  • Snap a photo of a crumpled receipt (or even a scribbled price).
  • Type quickly with one-tap presets (₱15 jeepney, ₱50 trike, ₱120 lunch).
  • Upload screenshots when you buy online.
  • Talk to log on the go—“Coffee ₱120, meeting with Mark.”

AI takes the mess and turns it into something usable. Entries get categorized, summarized, and rolled into a weekly money story you can actually act on.

New Feature This Week: Cash Leak Finder

This is my quiet favorite. After a week of logs, ResiboKo highlights where money is silently dripping out—the categories, patterns, or habits you don’t notice until you see them in one frame.

• “You spent ₱780 on delivery fees this week.”
• “Three rides you could have combined into one.”
• “Four subscriptions renewed; one hasn’t been used in 21 days.”

Then AI suggests saving opportunities:

• “Try a weekly grocery run vs. daily snacks (projected ₱300 saved).”
• “Switch from two micro-rides to one point-to-point ride (projected ₱120 saved).”
• “Pause [subscription]—you haven’t opened it; potential ₱349/month back.”

“Finding ‘cash leaks’ is not about shame. It’s about seeing clearly and choosing differently.”

Under the Hood (for Builders + Tinkerers)

If you’re into workflows and rapid prototyping, here’s the gist of the stack:

Capture layer

• Web app with four fast paths: Snap, Type, Upload, Talk
• Offline-friendly entry, then syncs when back online

Automation layer (n8n)

• Webhook receives payloads (image/audio/text)
• Sends to Google AI Studio for:
  • OCR + quick parse for amounts / vendors / categories
  • Heuristic “confidence” scoring
  • Short natural-language summary per entry (“Merienda coffee before meeting”)
• Stores normalized entries in Firebase

App layer

• Real-time feed of your spends
• One-tap categorization fixes (because AI isn’t always right)
• Weekly “money story” card (digestible summary)
• Cash Leak Finder job that runs every 7 days

Why this approach?

• n8n makes iteration ridiculously fast (drag, wire, ship).
• Firebase lets me skip backend busywork (auth + DB + sync).
• Google AI Studio gives flexible prompt-based smarts without heavy infra.

If you’re already building with n8n, I highly recommend trying the “workflow → mini-app” route. The shift from “this works on my machine” to “this helps me while commuting” is huge.

How I Use ResiboKo (and You Can, Too)

1. Decide your capture habit (don’t do all four).
   • If you’re camera-first: Snap everything you pay for that’s ≥ ₱50.
   • If you hate photos: Talk to log in 5 seconds as you walk.
   • If you buy online: Upload screenshots right from your gallery.
2. Set one daily micro-routine (30 seconds).
   • Before bed, open the app and skim your list.
   • Fix any wrong category with one tap.
   • That’s it. No spreadsheet time block. No guilt.
3. Read your weekly money story (Sunday).
   • Look at your top 3 spend clusters.
   • Accept or snooze AI suggestions.
   • Choose one behavior tweak for the next 7 days.

“Budgeting rarely fails from lack of tools. It fails from unrealistic expectations. Tiny, boring, consistent beats grand resets.”

What I’ve Learned So Far (3 Beta Users—Including Me, haha)

• Friction kills tracking. If it takes more than 10 seconds to log, I won’t do it in real life.
• Summaries beat raw tables. The weekly “money story” is the thing I actually read.
• Gentle nudges > hard rules. “Here’s an opportunity” works better than “You spent too much.”

Mini Playbook: From n8n Workflow to Micro-SaaS (Pinoy Edition)

If you want to build your own mini-app from an n8n prototype:

Phase 1 — Working Prototype

• Build your ingestion flow in n8n (webhook → parse → categorize → store).
• Use Google AI Studio for light NLP: extraction + labels + short summary.
• Save data to Firebase; render a simple front end with four capture modes.

Phase 2 — Reduce Friction

• Add one-tap presets for your actual life (jeepney, trike, kanto snacks).
• Enable offline capture and background sync.
• Ship a weekly digest card to replace “open app + analyze” behavior.

Phase 3 — Insight Layer

• Add Cash Leak Finder (pattern spotting + suggestions).
• Give users one choice per week: “Try this,” “Not relevant,” or “Remind me.”

Phase 4 — Feedback + Trust

• Add quick “fix category” buttons to teach the model.
• Keep a visible “This is how we guessed this” explainer for transparency.
• Make export dead simple (CSV/Sheets in one click).

Real Talk: Where I’m At Right Now

• I’m proud of how useful ResiboKo already is for my messy, cash-heavy days.
• I’ve got three beta users (counting myself), and they’re using it in different ways.
• Next challenge: finding the right early adopters, not “everyone.”
  • Students / first-jobbers who live on cash
  • Riders / freelancers with irregular income
  • Young families juggling allowance + groceries

I’m thinking of writing a step-by-step tutorial: from n8n → Firebase → AI prompts → weekly summaries. If that’s useful to you, tell me what you’d want covered first.

If You Want To Try It

I’m onboarding slowly to keep feedback tight and fixes fast.
If you want to test, send me a quick note with:

• Your typical commute + daily spend patterns
• Your preferred capture mode (Snap, Type, Upload, or Talk)
• What one money question you want answered weekly

I’ll add you to the next batch and share a simple “getting started” guide.

Closing: A Budget That Fits Real Life

I don’t want a perfect budget. I want a compassionate system that meets me where I am—on a crowded train, in a noisy café, at a sari-sari store, or scrolling in bed.

ResiboKo isn’t magic. It’s just the smallest possible set of helpful defaults:

• Capture fast.
• See clearly.
• Adjust gently.

If that sounds like something you’ve been looking for, I’d love to hear from you.
What’s your biggest “cash leak” lately—and what would you like your money story to say next Sunday?