Bread Head wins Rep. Ilhan Omar’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Minnesota’s Fifth District

When asked what inspired the creation of Bread Head, Ved Bastodkar said, “It all started earlier this year, when my older sister worked at Starbucks. She would tell me how many people, many of them teens, would repeatedly come in to buy drinks with excessive extras that would add up to quite a bit of money. At the dinner table one day, she shared, ‘If I were them, I would just buy a coffee machine and make my own coffee!’ She was right. I quickly did the math. If a person were to make coffee at home rather than buy it, they would save close to $1400 a year. If only people my age were more aware of their expenditures, or had the tools and knowledge in personal finance to make better decisions.

“I was thrilled to learn that the State of Minnesota is the 20th State in America that has made it mandatory for incoming 9th graders to take a semester-long course in personal finance. This is when I wanted to create Bread Head – an app that supplements this learning. The app would be a space where teens can review and learn concepts in their own time, practice budgeting, but most importantly, have a chance to reflect on how their spending habits made them feel. Did that moment of instant gratification they had yesterday, say in buying that drink, burger, or shoes yesterday, make them still feel happy today?

“At the very heart of financial literacy, knowing definitions is not enough. It is vital to build self-awareness. Bread Head is designed around that very idea. The app combines short, interactive lessons with a personal budgeting system and daily journaling prompts. Users can learn the basics of money management, track their expenses, and think about how each choice connects to their goals. It turns abstract concepts like ‘saving’ or ‘spending wisely’ into something personal, visual, and reflective. It’s something that I know the teens buying their daily coffee before school at my sister’s coffee shop would benefit from.”