Budget Buddy

Inspiration

Managing personal finances can be overwhelming, especially for students and young professionals. Many budgeting apps are too complex or cluttered. Our goal with Budget Buddy was simple: provide a tool that makes tracking income, expenses, and savings effortless and easy to understand.

What it does

Budget Buddy lets users: Input income, fixed, and extra expenses. Visualize total expenses, disposable income, and progress toward savings goals. Simulate “what-if” scenarios to see how changes in spending or income affect their finances. Track cumulative savings over time with an interactive timeline. It focuses on clarity, simplicity, and actionable insights, rather than reinventing budgeting.

How we built it

Frontend: Streamlit for interactive inputs and real-time updates. Backend: SQLite database to store user data persistently. Visualizations: Plotly charts for expenses, disposable income, and savings goal projections. Scenario Simulator: Users can adjust any expense or income and instantly see the impact.

Challenges we ran into

Handling dynamic extra expenses while keeping the interface simple. Updating simulations in real-time without errors. Making visualizations clear but informative for users at all experience levels.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Created a fully interactive, real-time budgeting tool that’s easy to use. Built a scenario simulator that shows financial consequences of changes. Designed an intuitive timeline projecting savings goal achievement.

What we learned

Streamlit allows rapid prototyping for interactive applications. Visualizations and clear UI are critical for conveying financial information. Persisting user data (with SQLite) improves usability and real-world functionality.

What's next for Budget Buddy

Add gamification features, like badges for hitting milestones. Include debt reduction plans and emergency fund projections. Expand visualizations with monthly trend charts and advanced scenario comparisons.