Keep the Diff: No Spend

Keep the Diff is a money saving app built around one subtraction: what you were ready to spend, minus what you actually spent. You talk yourself out of things all the time. The takeout you decided against, the jacket in the tab you closed, the second round you skipped. Nothing keeps a record of those choices, so they never feel like progress. Keep the Diff keeps that record. PLANNED SPEND MINUS ACTUAL SPEND EQUALS THE DIFF It comes down to two numbers: 1. What you were ready to spend. The dinner you nearly ordered, the shoes you nearly replaced. 2. What you actually spent. Often nothing. There is a "Didn't buy it" button for the common case. The difference is yours. This savings tracker adds it up by week, by month, and toward whatever you are saving for. Logging one takes three taps. PLAN IT BEFORE YOU SPEND IT Plan a spend is the other way round: put in what you are ready to spend on something coming up, pick later today, tomorrow morning or in three days, and get on with your evening. When that time comes the app asks what you actually spent, and the Diff is the gap. Until then, a countdown on Home and in a notification you can swipe away shows when the question is coming. One switch in Settings turns the countdown off. Planning and answering are free. YOU DECIDE WHAT COUNTS There is no budget to keep and no bank account to link. Keep the Diff never tells you what to spend and never shows you a red number. Buy the thing anyway and nothing happens: there is simply no Diff that time. Nothing resets, no streak breaks, and the lowest a week can read is zero. Spent less than you planned? That counts too. Ninety dollars planned and forty spent is a fifty dollar Diff. IF YOU ARE DOING A NO SPEND CHALLENGE A no spend month, a no buy year, a low spend week: whatever you have called it, the hard part is the same. You make a good decision standing in a shop, and then nothing marks it. By Friday that decision is forgotten. Keep the Diff is the no spend challenge app for people who do not want a streak. Log the impulse buy you walked away from, and that amount becomes a number you keep. Buy something anyway, or change your mind halfway through, and nothing resets. The week still reads what you actually saved. WHY AN EXPENSE TRACKER THAT TRACKS WHAT YOU DIDN'T SPEND Every other personal finance app is built around transactions, so the only thing an expense tracker can show you is money leaving. The decisions that stop money leaving are invisible to it, even though they are the entire reason there is anything left at the end of the month. This one is the spending tracker for the spending that did not happen. WHAT IS FREE Logging decisions is free, with no ads or limit. So is this week's total, this month's, your recent history, and the weekly recap card you can share. Milestones are marked as you reach them, and you can share one. WHAT PREMIUM ADDS - Your full history, with CSV export - Categories and breakdowns, so you can see where the Diff comes from - Goals, with a photo of the thing you are saving for - Home screen widgets, including one for each goal - Sync across every device you sign in on - The Wear OS watch app, with a tile and a watch face complication - Recurring Diffs, with Premium - One subscription covers every device you own ON EVERY DEVICE YOU OWN Android phones and tablets, Wear OS, and all your other devices on any platform. YOUR MONEY STAYS YOURS TO KNOW ABOUT Keep the Diff does not connect to your bank. You never link an account, hand over a bank password, or share a transaction feed. An account is optional and logging never needs one. If you sign in and turn on sync, your ledger is encrypted on your phone before it leaves, so we never see it: the numbers you type are the only numbers this money saving app has.