UNIVERSITY CANADA WEST
UCW student develops budgeting app

A University Canada West student has developed an app to help individuals plan their budgets.

Budgety, created by MBA student Mary-Margaret Chisom Ezeh, is a mobile application that helps people track their financial transactions, manage their budgets and stay on top of their finances. Chisom said she wanted to design the app so users could plan their budgets in a fun and easy way.

"When it comes to money and financial habits, it's something that goes way back to when I was really young. When I got gifted cash from my uncles and aunties, I would save them up," said Chisom. "So I grew up having a thing for helping people have good financial habits."

That early interest in money continued to grow for Chisom, who first worked in financial technology back in her home country of Nigeria before coming to Canada to attend UCW.

The idea for the app came three years ago when she was thinking about ways to help people make smarter money decisions.

"I've seen a lot of these apps already, but none of them stuck with me, they look so boring, and you know, finance is already boring," she said with a laugh. "Nobody wants to talk too much about that money that they spent. So I said, You know what, let me do something that is kind of fun to use and relatable to people.'"

"We're not telling you not to spend your money. But we are telling you that if you budget wisely, you can save up for that trip that you want, pay off your loans or live the life that you want. And all you need to do is to budget your money wisely by building healthy financial habits."

After years of development work, Chisom soft-launched the app in December and has been incorporating user feedback into improving Budgety. She says it's like having a best friend who knows your financial secrets and keeps you accountable to build better financial habits.

"With this app, you can make smarter money decisions and also achieve your goals, even if it's just to be able to afford a cup of coffee."

Budgety is available via the Apple App Store and Google Play. For more information, see mybudgety.com.