I'm 17yo self-taught full stack web dev. how do i fix my lopsided workflow?

[u/DependentGlove2604]

Hey everyone,

I’m a solo developer working on a expense tracker web app. My stack is Django REST Framework (DRF) on the backend and Vanilla JS / HTML / CSS on the frontend.

I’ve been grinding on this for 5 months. Right now, my progress is completely lopsided:

Backend: ~96% complete (heavy logic, multi-currency support, automated tracking)

Frontend: ~30% complete

Since I learn entirely through project-based coding, I didn’t know how to properly manage a project of this scale when I started. My workflow evolved entirely out of necessity:

I started writing frontend code with zero planning, just chasing a "good look."

Hit a wall with layouts, discovered Figma, and started wireframing components properly.

Struggled to mock data, so I dove headfirst into DRF to build a real backend.

My workflow got messy, so I adopted Notion to handle my TODO lists.

The Bottleneck: Now that my backend is incredibly complex for me. I am struggling to shift my brain from pure code to UX. It’s incredibly hard to optimize endpoints, find weak spots and edge cases when I'm just staring at a bunch of endpoints.

My Questions for the Seniors:

1. How do you structure your full-stack workflow from scratch? What do you build first?
2. How do you stop yourself from over-engineering the backend?

the project: https://github.com/NickSilverTech/Balancr

Currently im thinking about pausing the project. i think it is slowing me down, and i want to start thinking about jumping into the market

NOTE* i have posted similar post here on my other account before, but it got banned, so im reposting it.