FrugalVue facts

What it is

• FrugalVue is a private household finance app for budgets, bills and spending.
• Each household gets its own FrugalVue: its own site and its own database, not a shared pool.
• It's made by West Technical Services, and it's in invite-only early access.
• It's a web app that works on phones and desktops. There's no app-store app.
• It's a read-only visual aid that organizes, categorizes and reports. It isn't financial advice.

How the money data comes in

• Daily bank sync goes through SimpleFIN Bridge, which covers most US banks and credit unions.
• The connection is read-only. FrugalVue can't move money, and households connect their banks on SimpleFIN Bridge's own site, so FrugalVue never sees bank passwords.
• Access can be revoked at SimpleFIN Bridge in one click.
• On day one, a household imports 12–14 months of history: a Rocket Money export, or any bank's CSV, OFX, QFX, QBO or QIF download.
• Files and the bank connection are matched, so a purchase seen in more than one place counts once.

What it does

• Finds recurring bills and subscriptions, including yearly ones.
• Shows a money calendar of this month's bills and paychecks, paid or still to come.
• Builds a first budget from what the household really spent, with giving planned first as a share of income.
• Shows monthly cash flow with averages, and what a home really costs.
• Tracks homes, vehicles and loans, with a payoff planner for extra payments.
• Keeps receipts on transactions and tracks expense reports until they're paid back.
• Switches banks without missing a bill, with the Account Migration Wizard.
• Sends a short email every morning: yesterday's spending, the month against budget and bills due.
• Lets everyone in the household sign in with their own Google account, at no cost per person.
• Answers questions and suggests categories with the household's own Gemini, Claude or OpenAI key, if they add one.
• Connects to Claude over MCP, read-only or read and write, as a preview.
• Exports a full backup at any time.

What it doesn't do

• Sell or share household data, show ads or affiliate offers, or use trackers.
• Move money or pay bills.
• Track investments or show a credit score.
• Cancel subscriptions or negotiate bills for you.
• Send data to an AI the household didn't choose. AI is off unless they add their own key.

Privacy and security

• Sign-in is Google with a verified email, deny by default: only people the owner adds can get in, checked on the server for every request.
• Account numbers are kept as the last four digits only.
• Bank, email and AI keys are encrypted at rest (AES-256-GCM).
• Imported files are read in memory and never stored.
• The app has no third-party scripts, ads or analytics, and it isn't indexed by search engines.

Price and how to try it

• FrugalVue is invite-only for now. Costs are discussed when we reply to a request.
• We can host a household's FrugalVue, or help them run it on their own hosting.
• SimpleFIN Bridge, the bank connection, is a separate service with its own small yearly fee.
• The demo site has a made-up household with a year of history, open for as long as you like. It resets every night.
• Ask for early access or a demo login at frugalvue.com, or write to info@frugalvue.com.

How it compares

FrugalVue keeps each household's data on its own site; Rocket Money, Monarch and YNAB keep it in the company's cloud. Another app may suit you better if you want a free tier and bill negotiation (Rocket Money), close investment tracking with polished mobile apps (Monarch), or zero-based budgeting with banks in the UK or EU (YNAB). The side-by-side comparison lists its sources and the date they were checked.