Messio — managing meals and shared-kitchen expenses

Since starting university, I have lived in a shared flat with other students. Like many student messes and bachelor households in Bangladesh, we cook meals together in a shared kitchen and divide the costs among the people eating there.

We relied on Google Sheets and manual records to track bills, meal counts, groceries, and household shopping expenses. Keeping those records up to date was a hassle for all of us. I started building Messio to solve that everyday problem, shaping the application around our own routines and the needs of others living in similar arrangements.

I continue to add features and fix bugs based on their feedback. Living with the same shared-kitchen responsibilities that the application supports keeps its development connected to real needs.

Messio uses Next.js and TypeScript for its web application and APIs, with MongoDB for kitchen, membership, meal, and financial records. These product requirements shape how those records are organized.

Keep records tied to a kitchen

A person can belong to multiple kitchens. Meals, expenses, deposits, and fees stay associated with the kitchen whose records produce the balance.

Give members and managers distinct workflows

Members plan meals and review their balances. Managers coordinate kitchen operations and review attendance and finances. Owner, Manager, and Member roles shape access to those workflows.

Connect daily records to month-end totals

Meal, purchase, deposit, and fee records feed the meal rate, member balances, and monthly reports. The reporting view brings those records together at the end of the month.