Claudia

Inspiration: Most finance apps say “spend less”. For freelancers, gig workers and hourly students, the real problem is uncertainty. We wanted a buddy that helps you spend more on what matters to you, with confidence. What it does: Forecast: shows a range of where your balance could go, flags tight patches, and links to NatWest help. Claudia: ask “should I buy this?” by text or voice and get a verdict (buy, wait, swap or skip) with reasons. Personalise: your priorities shape her advice. Dashboard and Tasks: safe-to-spend, goal tracker, bill countdown and suggested actions. Support: wellbeing links (NatWest, Samaritans, Mind). How we built it: React Native (Expo) app, with a small Express server for Claudia. Code does the maths, Claude does the judgement. A guardrail overrides any “buy” the user can’t afford. An offline fallback means Claudia always answers. Voice: text-to-speech, plus ElevenLabs speech-to-text on mobile. Every answer shows the numbers behind it. Challenges we ran into: Venue network and IPv6 problems broke API calls. We waited on an API key, so we switched from Gemini to Claude. Merging four people’s work broke the app until we cleaned up git. Keeping the AI from encouraging overspending. Getting voice working on a phone. Accomplishments that we’re proud of: A buddy that sometimes says “yes, treat yourself”, backed by numbers. An AI that can’t approve what you can’t afford. Text and voice, with an offline fallback. A consistent app built by four people in one weekend. What we learned: Splitting maths from judgement makes AI more trustworthy. Plain language and visible reasoning matter for inclusion. Plan for failure early. What’s next for Claudia: Proactive warnings before a tight week. Connect to real forecast and spending data. Remember priorities and past decisions. Open banking. A warmer voice and more accessibility. Test with real gig workers and students.