Mama Budget
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One number for the week. She holds you to it, from inside your cart, before you pay. Rice, rent, school, money home: she never touches. The rest, she asks about first.
Amazon, Target, Walmart, any Shopify store. Everything else she reads on sight.
Not a blocker and not a guilt trip. She asks once, reacts only when you said it was a want and it blows the week, and Buy anyway is always there. A working Chrome extension, open source, 144 tests.
The bank sees one Target charge. I see rice, soap and AirPods, and I treat each one differently. Rice is a need. AirPods are a question. What you need never moves the meter.
A new thing above fifteen dollars gets one question: what for? Say it is for something and I never ask about it again. Say you just want it, and I have the right to speak.
Mama now$179 on AirPods. The week is gone and Friday is rent. I said it.
A want that fits the week gets a nod. A want that blows the week gets my voice, and your phone buzzes. Nothing is ever blocked. Buy anyway is always there. I just want you to hear it first.
The first number she shows you is what stayed in your pocket because she said something. Put the AirPods back and it goes up. Move money to savings, send money home, it goes up. Sunday at seven she texts you the week in four lines, and you can text her back.
MamaSunday 7:00 PMThis week: $50 of $75 fun money gone, $25 left, 2 days to go.
You kept $40. ₦64,000 back home.
Rent is due in 4 days.
Good week. Same again.
how much do I have left
$25 this week. Rent Friday. Rice is at home.
We froze 50 real purchases before writing a single rule, then asked two mothers to label each one. Where they agreed, Mama agreed with them 26 of 32 times. The bank’s own categories got 22. She never scolded a need. On the 15 purchases where the mothers disagreed with each other, she did the only honest thing. She asked.
Agreement with two participating mothers, not objective truth. The model only names what an item is. The rules decide. Protocol, cases and every label are in the repo.
Read the protocolSame rules, a different mouth. She only ever talks about the amount and the item, never about you. Nobody is scolded on first sight.
Nigerian. Warm first, loud second. Tells you what it costs back home.
“Ehn ehn. One hundred and seventy nine dollars for AirPods Pro, with twenty five dollars left this week. You are sure?”
Midwestern. Sweet first, dry second. Says less than she means.
“Well. One hundred and seventy nine dollars for AirPods Pro, with twenty five dollars left this week. I’ll just leave that there.”
Ran a shop for thirty years. Quiet, then one dry sentence.
“One hundred and seventy nine dollars for AirPods Pro. Twenty five dollars left. Did the free ones break?”
Feeds you first, questions you after. Never raises her voice twice.
“Híjole. One hundred and seventy nine dollars for AirPods Pro, mija, with twenty five dollars left. There is food in the house.”
Three tiers. The dial changes her mouth, never her math. Quiet is text only. Loud means her voice, and your phone.
One number for the week. Held to, before you pay. What you need, she never touches.
Add to ChromeChrome Web Store listing in review. Until it is live: download the latest build, unzip it, open chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode, Load unpacked, pick the chrome-mv3 folder. The companion API runs on your computer: how to run it. The practice cart opens from her first run.
