How Casamy builds the list and gets to the prices

The questions

The list starts from 5 questions about the place:

1. Who’s moving in? Just you, two of you, or a family, and whether there’s a dog, a cat, or someone working from home.
2. Tell us about the place Apartment or house, studio or how many bedrooms, how many bathrooms, and which rooms.
3. Starting from scratch? From scratch, with a few things, merging two homes, or moving into a furnished place, and what you already have.
4. When and where? The move-in date, if you want, and the city’s climate: hot, mild, or cold.
5. What’s your budget? The budget cap, or no cap, and the style: basic, balanced, or splurge.

The catalog

Casamy doesn’t make up items: the list comes from a catalog, with the name, room, quantity, and price range of each item. There are two: the international one, with 162 items, and the Brazilian one, with 164. In Portuguese, or in a Portuguese-speaking country, the Brazilian one applies; everywhere else, the international one. Anything your home needs that isn’t there, you add to the list, with no limit. The list isn’t written by AI: it’s rules in code, and the same answers always give the same list. Nia, the app’s assistant, only suggests changes afterward, and they only apply when you tap.

Essential, can wait, or off the list

Each item starts as essential, “can wait”, or off the list, based on your answers. Quantities follow who lives there, and each extra bedroom or bathroom repeats its items. In a hot city, the fan becomes essential and the comforter comes off. With a cat, window safety screens and a scratching post come in. Working from home adds a desk and an office chair as essentials. What you already have comes off the shopping list, and built-ins and remodeling items are never essentials.

The first night

Some items carry the “first night” tag: what you’ll use on day one in the new place. When the budget is tight, they never come off the list.

The budget cap

If the essentials go over what you said you can spend, the engine changes as little as it can, in this order, and stops once it fits: it switches to the simpler price, starting with the item that saves the most; it uses a used price for large appliances; and it moves items to “can wait”, in a fixed order. The first night never comes off, and the refrigerator only does if that makes it fit. The app shows what was adjusted on each item and tells you when even the minimum doesn’t fit.

Where the prices come from

Each item has a range, from budget to mid-range, researched in stores in 2026, item by item, in 30 countries, each in its own currency, with no conversion. Everywhere else, prices are estimated from the international catalog and the country’s price level, calculated from World Bank data (purchasing power parity for consumption and the exchange rate of the same year). When the country’s currency isn’t the catalog’s, prices are adjusted for currency moves with the day’s exchange rate (ExchangeRate-API). When the home is created, the prices are saved with it.

What Casamy doesn’t claim

• It’s not today’s store price. The range is for planning; what counts is what you pay, and the budget adjusts when you enter it.
• It doesn’t recommend brands or stores. The catalog says what to buy, not where.
• It’s not a wedding registry or a store registry. It’s the list for the home, and Casamy doesn’t sell the items.
• Outside the researched countries, prices are an estimate.

Change log

1. October 9, 2026When the country’s currency isn’t the catalog’s, prices are now adjusted for currency moves, using the day’s exchange rate.
2. October 8, 2026A home in any country: the list comes out in the local currency, with item-by-item researched prices in the main countries and World Bank price-level estimates elsewhere. The quiz stops asking for the country.
3. September 26, 2026The international catalog goes live in the app: the list now works outside Brazil too, in English and Spanish.
4. September 24, 2026The quiz stops asking whether the place is rented: built-ins and remodeling items are “can wait” for everyone. The budget is now typed in.
5. September 21, 2026International catalog: each item gets its name, a price researched in stores outside Brazil, and the rules that change outside Brazil. Nothing is converted from reais.
6. September 19, 2026The list now fits the budget cap: simpler price, used price, then “can wait”, in that order.
7. September 18, 2026First version of the engine: its own catalog and rules in code, with no AI building the list.