ZayZoon put up $1000 for Vibe Code Vendredi with a specific challenge: build something that saves people money or helps employers connect with deskless workers.
I spent ~2 hours building Personal Finance Autopilot at Vibe Code Vendredi. Took the r/PersonalFinanceCanada flowchart and made it work for irregular income workers. Got an honorable mention - and now it's live for anyone to try.
🚀 Try the Live Demo | 📦 View Code on GitLab
The Challenge
ZayZoon's bounty targeted two problems:
- Build a tool that saves people money (with access to Plaid, banking, and employment data)
- Create something that helps employers connect with their deskless workforce
I went for the first one.
What I Built
In those 2 hours, I adapted the r/PersonalFinanceCanada flowchart for people who don't have steady paychecks. Added 8 generated fintech personas with 12 months of transaction data each to show how it works. Now deployed live with NixOS and Tailscale Funnel for secure access.
The key insight: traditional "save 3-6 months expenses" advice doesn't work when your income varies wildly month to month.
The Problem I Tackled
4.2 million Canadians work irregular hours. The standard r/PersonalFinanceCanada advice doesn't really work for them. So I built something that does.
Example: The Sarah persona (Uber driver) needs $18,550 for emergency funds based on her actual income volatility - not the generic 3-6 months everyone quotes. You can test this and other personas (Samuel, Rachel, Steven) in the live demo.
What I Built in 2 Hours
- Adapted the r/PersonalFinanceCanada flowchart logic for variable income
- Generated 8 fintech personas with 12 months transaction data each
- Built interactive visualizations showing financial progress with Plotly
- Deployed securely using NixOS with Tailscale Funnel (no traditional port forwarding needed)
- Live demo available with Streamlit web interface
Tech Stack & Development Process
// Data generation:
Webhound - Created realistic fintech transaction datasets
// AI-assisted development:
Claude Code - Transformed datasets into 8 flowchart personas
Perplexity - Validated personas and product ideas
Custom MCP setup - https://gitlab.com/slenderq/mcp-dev
// Application stack:
Streamlit + Pandas + Plotly + Graphviz
Rule-based logic (following PFC principles)
Nix flakes for deployment
Demo Video
Here's the 2-minute demo I presented at Vibe Code Vendredi:
Presentation Deck
The Gamma presentation that walked through the problem and solution:
The honorable mention was nice, but honestly the real win was getting this working and deployed in a single evening. Sometimes constraints force better solutions.
Photo by John McArthur on Unsplash
Content on this blog was created using human and AI-assisted workflows described here. Original ideas and editorial decisions by Justin Quaintance.