I built Juno - A brutally honest budgeting companion for Monzo users (would love testers!)

[Law]

Hey everyone, I’m Law!

I’ve been building something I think some of you might find genuinely useful.
It’s called Juno, a privacy-first budgeting companion that plugs into your Monzo account and tells you the actual amount you can safely spend today, not just your balance.

Try it here: https://juno.bare.money

---

What Juno does

Juno calculates your Safe to Spend using:

• your current balance
• all bills due before your next payday
• any expected shortfalls
• your personal buffer

No more trying to mentally subtract bills every time you look at your balance.

Other features

Bill detection
Spots upcoming recurring payments.

Income detection
Identifies your salary pattern, whether monthly or weekly.

AI money coach
Personality modes: Brutal, Balanced, and Gentle. Straight talking by design.

Privacy-first
You use your own Monzo developer credentials.
Everything is read-only.
Tokens are encrypted at rest with AES-256.

Works as a PWA
Installable, mobile-friendly, and fast.

---

Why I built it

I was frustrated by budgeting apps that show your balance but not your situation.
£500 looks fine… until £450 of bills drop tomorrow.

Juno gives you the truth.

---

Feedback I’m looking for

• Is Safe to Spend actually useful for you?
• Any confusing or rough parts in onboarding?
• Anything you’d expect in a tool like this that is missing?
• Anything that instantly put you off?
• Does the AI coach feel helpful or gimmicky?

I’m genuinely looking for honest feedback, even the harsh stuff.

---

For the tech-curious

• Next.js
• React
• Prisma
• PostgreSQL
• AES-256 token encryption
• Anthropic Claude
• PWA with Capacitor

---

Fun little extra

As a small thank you, the first 10 people who try it and share feedback will get a tiny Beta Tester badge in their Juno profile.
Nothing fancy, just a fun nod that you were here at the start.

---

Would love your thoughts

Try it here: https://juno.bare.money
Roast it, break it, tell me what sucks. Everything helps.

If you want to read the privacy or security details first, the info site is here:
https://bare.money

I originally built this for myself, but figured it might help others too, It’s very much work in progress, so don’t be too harsh on me!

🔧 Quick Juno Update! 30/11/2025

 A bunch of improvements have just gone live to make the Monzo connection much smoother and more reliable:

 • OAuth approval is now handled properly, so setup works without timing issues
 • Activity page now loads your transactions correctly
 • Recent transactions always appear (newest-first sync, with better history backfill)
 • Initial sync now fetches a much more complete history
 • Faster updates thanks to transaction notifications
 • Overall Monzo connection flow is more stable and consistent

 If anything gets stuck, a quick disconnect and reconnect in Settings will refresh everything.

 Thanks again to everyone testing and sending feedback — it’s been incredibly helpful!

[Bosaw]

Can’t get past this? I connect to Monzo, open the magic link and approve in the Monzo app and then get returned to this page again.

[Law]

Thank you.

Give me 5mins and this will be fixed, it’s because there is no connect button, as once you have approved in the Monzo App, there is no way for Juno to know this on the app without a prompt.

[Bosaw]

Yep. I pressed the already connected button. Now I get this error.

[Ryan1992 (Ryan)]

I’m not able to sign up - just keep getting a ‘Something went wrong’ error.

[Law]

@Bosaw You should be golden now.

@Ryan1992 Can you try again?

[Bosaw]

It still failed to sync. It let me skip through to the dashboard but there’s no data there.

[Law]

Thanks to Bosaw for flagging the connection issues. We’ve pushed several fixes:

Fixed:

1. “I’ve Approved - Connect Now” button - After approving in your Monzo app, you can now tap this button to complete the connection. Previously there was no way to proceed after approval.

2. Account already linked error - If your Monzo account was previously connected to a different Juno account (e.g. from testing), it now transfers the connection automatically instead of failing.

3. Empty Activity/Bills pages - New users weren’t getting their transactions synced. The dashboard now auto-syncs on first load, so your activity and bills populate immediately.

4. User number not showing - Fixed an issue where new user numbers weren’t being assigned correctly if previous accounts were deleted.

5. Better error messages - Connection errors now explain what went wrong (expired auth, redirect mismatch, invalid credentials) instead of generic failures.

Sync throttle also reduced from 10 mins to 3 mins for faster updates.

[Bosaw]

This is how mine looks right now. I tried completing the connection again but it made no difference.

[Law]

Update: Monzo Integration Improvements!

Quick update on some improvements and fixes to the Monzo connection in Juno.
Huge thanks to everyone who has been trying it out. Your testing has been incredibly helpful.

---

What’s been fixed

1. OAuth approval timing

Some users hit an issue where Juno tried to fetch account information before Monzo had fully approved the connection in the Monzo app.
Juno now waits properly for approval, and you can simply tap Retry to complete the setup once Monzo confirms access.

---

2. Missing transactions on the Activity page

A few people saw an empty Activity page even after connecting Monzo.
This was caused by the same approval timing issue. Juno was requesting transactions before Monzo had finished confirming access.

This is now fixed, and the Activity page will populate correctly once approval is complete.

---

3. Not seeing the most recent transactions

Monzo’s API returns transactions starting with the newest first, but Juno’s original pagination logic was fetching oldest first.
Heavy users reached the pagination limit before reaching today’s activity, which meant recent transactions did not appear.

Juno now fetches the newest transactions first, then fills in older history.
Your latest activity will always be included.

---

4. Better initial sync

Monzo only returns up to 100 transactions per request.
Juno now automatically fetches multiple pages, up to around 1,000 transactions on first connect, so your initial history is much more complete.

---

Faster updates with webhooks

Juno now listens for Monzo transaction notifications using your own developer credentials.
New transactions should appear in Juno much more quickly after you spend.

This activates automatically the next time you open the app.

---

If you run into issues

If anything seems stuck, the easiest fix is:

Settings → Disconnect Monzo → Reconnect

This resets everything cleanly.

[Law]

Give it ago now.. disconnect from Monzo and re-connect.

Hopefully it should work. Rookie move on my behalf, I didn’t do proper testing with new user accounts. :S Eekkk..

[TheAudiman]

I know this post is on the official Monzo boards but with all the comments above I just get the feeling that it’s a scam.

[abcde]

Echo this very easy to commit first party fraud with all this personal information shared

[Law]

I completely understand why people are cautious, especially with anything involving finances. Just to be clear: I built Bare myself, I’ve been a Monzo user for years, and it’s not a scam. The app uses secure, regulated, read-only bank connections, so I never see your login details and can’t move or access anyone’s money. It started as a personal project, and I shared it because people asked for something simple and private. Happy to answer any questions.

[le6o]

Interested to know how this is different to Trends? Can anyone give a simple comparison please.

[Jms (Jimmy)]

Agree, no offence intended Law would say the same to anyone but I certainly wouldn’t be choosing to connect my bank accounts to any random app especially one built by someone and then randomly posted on a official forum which could be a method to make it seem legit (again not saying it isn’t)

TLDR: Connect at your own risk, but I wouldn’t

[Law]

Totally fair point, Jimmy. Being careful about what you connect your bank to is always sensible.

Just to clarify, this genuinely started as a personal side project for myself. I just wanted something simple that I could open easily and instantly see what I can safely spend without worrying about bills. A few friends ended up finding it useful too, which is why I shared it. I will never charge for it. There is no business model, no ads, and no data selling. It also will not be for everyone, and that is completely fine.

On the comparison to Monzo Trends, Trends is a full-featured, bank-integrated product with forecasting, targets, and automated insights, built for mass-market convenience. This is not trying to compete with that.

Bare is intentionally simpler and more lightweight. It is for people who want a minimal external view without upsells or subscriptions, and with very direct control.

The AI prompt side of it is just a bit of fun that some people find genuinely useful. A lot of people do not feel comfortable talking openly about their finances. I used to be one of them. It is quite surprising how effective it can be to give AI your income and spending and explain your situation. Nine times out of ten it gives genuinely solid budget guidance.

It is not like the old days of having hard cash in your hand where you always knew exactly what you had. The digital era has absolutely made it easier for people to get into debt, often without even realising it.