Introducing Stowe
We all overpay on something.
Maybe it's a streaming service you stopped using months ago that still bills you every month. Maybe it's the phone plan you've had for years and never once compared against a newer one. Or the internet bill that creeps up a few dollars the moment your intro rate ends, and the insurance that quietly renews itself every year. Whatever yours is, research suggests the average household overpays by somewhere north of $1,800 a year.
It isn't that any of us are careless. We just never catch the increase when it happens, and we never find the free afternoon to sit down and sort it out.
Existing money apps haven't really fixed this. They make excellent historians: here are your transactions, sometimes correctly sorted, and here's the chart confirming that groceries ran high again. Generally useful, but all the real work still sits with you. You're the one who has to figure out what you should be paying, and then remember to do something about it.
Stowe is our answer to take all that work off your plate. It connects to your accounts and gets a feel for how your household really spends, then watches for the places money is leaking. Sometimes that's a phone bill that's quietly increased. Sometimes it's a subscription you haven't touched since March, or a card that doesn’t really fit how you spend. And when it finds something, it doesn't stop at telling you. It helps you fix it.
A money coach, not a calculator
Most money apps blur together, and we wanted Stowe to feel different. For us, that meant building Stowe to act like a helpful money coach: someone who's encouraging when you need it and content to stay quiet when you don't, but who taps you on the shoulder the moment something needs your attention.
Every morning, you'll get a short note about what's likely to leave your account that day, plus any bills coming due. Once a week, there's a slightly longer look back at how the past seven days actually went. And any time you want, you can ask Stowe a question about your money and get a straight answer. One beta user described it as 'Claude, but with my financial info'.
Stowe’s spending guidance is built around the 50/30/20 framework: 50% Needs (things like rent, groceries, and insurance), 30% Wants (think clothing, hobbies, and streaming subscriptions), and 20% Savings (including investments, savings, and debt repayment). It's a proactive approach to thinking about your money and takes the second-guessing out of spending. Once you know the important things are covered, you can stop wondering whether you're "doing it right" and spend on what you love without the guilt.
Built for the household, whatever shape yours takes: solo, couples, and families
A household is messier than a stack of accounts. Some of us share all financial details, while others keep everything private. Most are somewhere in between, all with different habits and savings goals. With bills and payments due throughout the month, it’s really hard to keep track of them on your own. And almost always, one person ends up holding all the details in their head. They do their best to know which bills changed, what's about to renew, and why last month felt tight. That's real, unrelenting work, and it's exactly the sort of thing software should be handling for you.
So Stowe lets you decide, account by account, what's shared and what stays private, from bank accounts down to individual transactions. And it pulls the household's shared costs into a single view: rent or mortgage, insurance, phone and internet bills, and utilities. That makes it easy to see when something goes up, and to figure out whether you're paying the right amount.
What's here now, and what's coming
There are so many features we’re excited about.
There's a credit card comparison tool, where you can see how your current card stacks up and whether it's the right one for how you spend. A cell phone plan picker that makes it easy to decide if you should switch. One place for all your subscriptions, plus an easy way to cancel the ones you're not using right in Stowe. We've even woven in national census spending data and other sources, so you can see how your spending compares with other people in your area. And we're just getting started.
But underneath it all, the thing we care about most is simpler than a list of features. We want household money to feel lighter. Not so much a chore you’re permanently behind on, and more like something that's quietly handled. A bit more money left at the end of the month, and a lot less anxiety getting there. Enough that the family trip this summer, or the dinner out with friends that you keep talking yourself out of, finally becomes an easy yes.
Today, Stowe steps out of beta and opens to all households. We'd love for you to try it. And at launch, it's just $1 for your first year with code JOINSTOWE. You can bypass the code and get the offer directly here.
We all overpay on something. We built Stowe to finally do something about it ;)
