Inspiration
We were inspired to build BudgetBet because budgeting and saving money can feel isolating and sometimes discouraging. Many people try to stick to financial goals but lose motivation without accountability. We thought: what if saving money could feel as fun and engaging as playing a game with friends? By turning budgeting into a friendly competition, we wanted to make personal finance more social, motivating, and rewarding.
What We Learned
Through this project, we learned not only about financial APIs and backend/frontend integration but also about how to design an app that balances fun with practicality. We gained experience working with Plaid’s API for banking data, FastAPI for backend development, and designing a user experience that encourages positive financial behavior. On top of that, we learned how important it is to define clear rules for challenges so that competitions remain fair and motivating.
How We Built It
Frontend: We built the user interface with pages for login, dashboard, groups, bets, and profiles. The focus was on simplicity making it easy for users to create or join challenges and track progress.
Backend: We used FastAPI to build RESTful APIs for handling authentication, group creation, bet logic, and leaderboard tracking.
Plaid Integration: To link real financial data, we integrated with the Plaid API so users’ spending could be tracked securely.
AI Scoring: We experimented with adding AI-based scoring to provide personalized insights and predictions, such as estimating the likelihood of meeting a challenge goal.
Challenges We Faced
One of our biggest challenges was handling Plaid integration, especially learning how to securely connect bank accounts and filter only the relevant spending data for bets. Another challenge was designing the group and bet logic so that it worked consistently for all edge cases (e.g., when people join late or drop out). On the frontend, ensuring smooth navigation and updating dashboards in real-time also required problem-solving. Finally, coordinating as a team while learning new tools like FastAPI and Plaid under time constraints pushed us to manage scope carefully and focus on the core features first.
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