After 6 months of development, I finally launched my first mobile app today 🚀

Really simple but practical idea, are you making money from the app now.

My advise start marketing early build traction one of the things i learnt

X and Tiktok are best would not waste time with reddit

The $1,200 to $500 story is compelling, but it needs a product-level test before it becomes the promise. I'd recruit 20 people before a grocery trip, have them set a budget, and compare planned versus actual spend. The first useful metric isn't downloads; it's the percentage of trips where the live cart total changes a purchase decision.

congrats on shipping both platforms at once. i launched my first saas last week so i know the "now what" feeling exactly. the $1,200 to $500 story is doing a lot of work for you and it should — it's the emotional hook every one of these tracker apps needs and most of them don't have.

one thing i'd think about before the story becomes your headline: how much of the drop was cartbudget vs. the just-noticing effect that shows up with any tracker in the first month? not a criticism, more that the way you answer it privately shapes your positioning. if it's mostly noticing, your value prop is really "we make grocery spend visible and it re-drops when you re-notice." if the app itself keeps re-generating that friction after habituation, that's a much stronger claim and probably worth a screen in the app itself.

also — for first users, small suggestion. everyone in your thread said broadcast (x, tiktok, communities). broadcast works but it's slow at 0 users. the fastest thing that worked for me was scrolling for individual people who publicly complained about the exact problem, then dm-ing one at a time. brutal grind, way more signal than posts.

Congrats on shipping both platforms at once - that's not a small thing for a first launch. The "tracking made the problem visible" part resonates a lot; I built my own tool the same way (a YouTube analytics extension), after realizing I couldn't actually tell what was working on my own channel until I started tracking it against my own history instead of some generic benchmark. Once you can see your own pattern clearly, the fix is usually obvious - the hard part is building something that surfaces it without you having to dig for it every time.

Did the $500/month number hold up once the "noticing effect" wore off, or did you have to keep actively checking to stay there?

That's a really nice app, I tried to work on something similar but with bank connections with chilean banks but internal policies made it imposible sadly. congrats for your launch

Huge milestone congrats! I think the story about cutting your grocery spending from $1,200 to $500 is actually one of your strongest marketing assets. People connect with personal experiences more than feature lists. I'd lean into that story everywhere you promote the app.

Congratulations! I can understand you excitement level because I work for a mobile app development company. Being an app marketer, I understand the hustle of building some by yourself and market it. Kudos! to you.

Congratulations! Launching is a huge milestone. What’s the one thing you’re hoping to learn in the first week that will determine what you build next?

Congratulations! I'm at a stage where i am still validating my idea, so im interested, how did you validate this idea before deciding to spend the 6 months building?

Huge congratulations on shipping your first mobile app! 'm also working with mobile apps. I’m really interested about the publishing side:

1. Was getting it live on the App Store / Play Store hard for you, or did it go smoothly?
2. Did you face any rejections or policy issues along the way? Because, when I published for the first time I got rejected and re-published again.

Did you manage the whole publishing process yourself, or did you get help or paid support?
Would love to hear what surprised you most about launch day versus what you expected while you were still in development.

The cost realisation is a much stronger hook for getting your first users than the feature list.

Have you tried posting the before/after story itself into places where people already swap grocery-savings tips, like r/personalfinance or budgeting communities on TikTok/Reddit, and letting the app be the natural follow-up rather than the lead? Curious what you've tried for first users so far.

Content distribution for me -you can build something great but if nobody sees it the revenue never comes. Curious whether you found organic search or community-driven growth worked better at your stage.

Reducing grocery spending is a compelling story because it's about changing behavior, not tracking expenses. One thing I'd keep validating is whether users see CartBudget as a budgeting app or as a tool that helps them make better decisions before they spend.