AI Budget Tracker for Students

Tagline: Track, Save, Succeed: AI-Powered Budgeting for Students!

Project Story

What Inspired Me

As a student, managing a tight budget is a constant challenge. Expenses for food, transport, and entertainment pile up fast, and it’s easy to lose track. The Bolt.new hackathon inspired me to create a tool to empower students to:

Track spending effortlessly.
Receive smart, AI-driven savings tips.
Build financial confidence with a simple, mobile-friendly app.

I wanted to make budgeting approachable for students, even those with no tech experience, and the hackathon was the perfect spark to bring this idea to life.

What I Learned

As a non-developer, this project was a steep learning curve. Key takeaways include:

Streamlit: Building a user-friendly web UI with Python for forms and dashboards.
SQLite: Managing a database to store, retrieve, and delete expenses.
AI Logic: Creating rule-based AI to generate savings tips based on spending patterns.
Deployment: Using GitHub and Streamlit Cloud to share the app publicly.
Debugging: Solving errors by breaking problems into manageable steps, like fixing database issues and Streamlit function errors.

How I Built the Project

I initially prototyped the app with Bolt.new but pivoted to Streamlit due to token limits. The building process included:

Tech Stack:
- Streamlit: For the front-end UI.
- SQLite: For storing expenses in expenses.db.
- Python: For AI logic and app functionality.
Features:
- Home Page: A form to input expenses (amount, category, date).
- Dashboard Page: Displays spending summaries, an expense list with Delete buttons, and AI savings tips (e.g., "Cook at home" for high Food spending).
- Delete Functionality: Added buttons in the expense table to remove entries, updating the database and UI.
- Badge: Included the logotext_poweredby_360w.png Bolt.new badge on both pages.
Deployment: Pushed app.py, requirements.txt, README.md, and the badge image to GitHub, then deployed on Streamlit Cloud.

This project transformed my idea into a practical tool for students, with the Bolt.new badge as a nod to the hackathon that inspired it. I’m thrilled to share it!