HMS - Household Management System

Role: Full-stack Developer (Solo) Tech Stack: Elixir, Phoenix LiveView, PostgreSQL, Tailwind CSS, Docker Live: Deployed on Railway

Overview

A real-time collaborative web application that helps households manage shared responsibilities, expenses, and resources. Built as a single-page application using Phoenix LiveView for instant UI updates without page reloads.

Problem

Households with multiple members struggle to coordinate chores, split expenses fairly, track shared inventory, and plan meals together. Existing tools are fragmented across multiple apps with no unified experience.

Solution

A single platform where household members can collaboratively manage all aspects of shared living, with real-time updates so everyone stays in sync.

Key Features

Household System

• Create or join a household with invite codes

• Role-based permissions: Owner, Admin, Member

• Real-time notifications when members join or leave

Expense Tracking & Settlements

• Log expenses with categories, amounts, and who paid

• Automatic debt calculation between members

• Settlement system to balance what everyone owes

Task & Chore Management

• Create, assign, and track household chores

• Due dates, priorities, frequency settings

• Personal vs shared task visibility

Inventory Tracking

• Monitor household items with quantities and units

• Expiry date alerts for perishables

• Low stock notifications

Meal Planning & Recipes

• Recipe library with ingredients, prep/cook times, difficulty

• Weekly meal planner

• Filter by category, cuisine, and favorites

Calendar

• Unified month view aggregating task deadlines, expenses, and expiring items

• Day detail modals with links to source items

Analytics Dashboard

• Expense breakdowns by category and member

• Task completion metrics

• Household activity overview

Technical Highlights

• Real-time UI: Phoenix LiveView over WebSockets for instant updates across all connected clients

• Passwordless Auth: Magic link email authentication via Resend

• Responsive Design: Mobile-first Tailwind CSS with slide-out sidebar navigation

• Data Modeling: PostgreSQL with Ecto schemas, associations, and migrations

• Notifications: In-app notification center with read/unread state

• Production Deployment: Multi-stage Docker build deployed on Railway with automatic migrations on boot

Architecture

Outcome

Delivered a production-ready, full-featured household management app with clean architecture, real-time collaboration, and a polished mobile-responsive UI.