Retail Trauma

A browser extension that threatens us into financial responsibility but blocking the checkout screen and roasting users, alongside a web app to set financial goals, display trends, and record keeping.

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Inspiration

Inspired by Sophie Yuen, her $1K+ shopping sprees and the money in our bank accounts.

What it does

Once at the checkout screen of online shopping sites, the browser extension will block the screen so that the users will get roasted with no option to close the screen overlay. Here, the items and their prices are collected and evaluated against the users' financial goals and online shopping budget. The purchases will be judged and roasted accordingly. After the users make modifications and place the order, the items and prices will be recorded for bookkeeping to track progress. Users can modify their goals, budget and look at their past/present spending in the interactive dashboards in the web app.

How we built it

We built a full-stack financial wellness platform with a Next.js 15 frontend, MongoDB database, and AI-powered roasting via Google Gemini. The system features a robust CI/CD pipeline with SonarQube for continuous code quality analysis, automated testing workflows for apis and libraries, and GitHub Actions for deployment. Our browser extension intercepts purchases in real-time, checks spending against user goals, and uses AI to roast overspenders—encouraging them to save instead. When users click "I'll Save," the money is automatically distributed across their savings goals and tracked for analytics. The entire codebase maintains high-quality standards through automated SonarQube scans that analyze code coverage, detect bugs, and enforce security best practices before every deployment.

Challenges we ran into

Hardware Difficulties. We had to pivot from a mobile app to a browser extension due to time constraints, feasibility and lack of permissions with 20 hours left of the hackathon.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Proud of snarky roasts and the mascot, Mr. Snuffles.

What we learned

Stop doomscrolling. Sleep better before a hackathon. Bring towels and soap in a hackathon.

What's next for Retail Trauma?

It will have audio, expanded into more shopping sites, forecasting user online expenditures, analyzing users' disposable income based on user input, location, age etc to give a more accurate judgement.

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