It started on our own kitchen table.

OurJamJar began as one New Zealand family’s budget. The spreadsheet had grown too big, the bank exports never quite lined up, and nobody wanted to spend Sunday night copying numbers across.

So we built the tool we wanted: one that pulls in the transactions, sorts them properly, and answers the only question that matters most weeks — how much have we got left? — while still letting us edit the budget like a spreadsheet when we want to.

It worked for us, so now we’re opening it up to other households.

TODO (Dan): check the story above is accurate and add a short founder note — who you are, where you’re based, and a photo if you’d like one.

Why “jam jar”?

Before bank apps, plenty of Kiwi households budgeted with jars on the kitchen shelf: one for the rent, one for groceries, one for the power bill. When payday came, the cash was split between the jars, and when a jar was empty, that was that. It’s still one of the clearest ways to think about money — and it’s exactly how OurJamJar works, minus the coins.