TrueCost

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Inspiration

The idea for TrueCost came from a personal experience with financial literacy. Last year, I remember checking my credit card and wondering how it was possible that I had spent so much money without realizing it. I started searching for tools to track subscriptions and understand where my money was going, but none of them worked the way I wanted. They felt incomplete or unclear, so we decided to build our own solution.

What We Learned

Through building TrueCost, we learned how important financial clarity and accessibility are, especially for students and young adults. We also gained hands-on experience with full-stack development, database design, and collaborative version control.

How We Built It

TrueCost was built as a full-stack web application using Next.js and React with TypeScript. The backend uses SQLite with Drizzle ORM to manage data, and server actions handle business logic and calculations. We designed features to highlight opportunity cost, long-term financial impact, and the amount of work time required for purchases.

Challenges We Faced

One of our biggest challenges was translating abstract financial concepts into insights that are easy to understand. We also faced challenges integrating frontend and backend systems, managing database migrations, and building a full-stack project while learning new technologies.