Inspiration

Managing personal finances can feel overwhelming, especially for students and young professionals trying to track spending, set financial goals, and build better money habits. We wanted to create a simple, intuitive budgeting tool that empowers users to visualize where their money is going—without the need for complicated spreadsheets or account integrations.

What it does

Bapp is a lightweight budgeting app that allows users to set a budget and create custom allocations for different spending categories (e.g., groceries, rent, entertainment). Users can easily add or update allocations via a modal interface, view how much they’ve spent in each category, and see how much they have left in their budget—all in one clean, accessible dashboard.

How we built it

We used Spring Boot for the backend to manage API endpoints and business logic, with PostgreSQL as the database to store budget data and allocations. The frontend is built using React with TypeScript, providing a responsive, user-friendly interface. We focused on simplicity, intentionally leaving out login/signup functionality to make the app immediately usable.

Challenges we ran into

One challenge was designing the modal system in a way that felt smooth and non-intrusive while maintaining data integrity across components. On the backend, syncing real-time updates with the frontend required careful handling of state and API responses. We also had to make decisions on what features to prioritize to keep the MVP lean but functional.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of building a full-stack application that actually feels useful in our everyday lives. The smooth interaction between frontend and backend, clean UI, and modular design all came together to create something we're genuinely excited about sharing. We also kept the codebase readable and scalable for future development.

What we learned

We learned how to structure a full-stack app from scratch, integrate React with Spring Boot effectively, and handle state and modal flows in a clean, maintainable way. We also gained experience in translating user needs into product features, and learned how to prioritize development tasks in a limited timeframe.

What's next for Bapp

We’re planning to add persistent user sessions, support for recurring budgets, data visualization tools (like pie charts and progress bars), and mobile responsiveness. We also want to explore exporting budgets to CSV and eventually adding secure authentication for personalized tracking across devices.