BudgetMe

BudgetMe uses AWS to help students budget, manage money, and get personalized tips, promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, while addressing every student's unique financial needs.

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Inspiration

Our project, BudgetMe, was inspired by our own problems as college students. With limited savings, little to no income, and limited financial assistance from family, budgeting has been a very pressing problem for us as it is essential for us to be more mindful of our spending habits.

What it does

Our platform securely accesses data directly from users' bank accounts and employs artificial intelligence to provide personalized recommendations based on their spending habits and budget.

How we built it

The website's frontend was developed using HTML, CSS, and Jinja templates, while the backend was implemented in Python with a MongoDB database. We leveraged AWS services such as EC2 for hosting and Bedrock for AI integration. Additionally, we utilized the Teller API to establish a connection to users' bank accounts and retrieve their financial data.

Challenges we ran into

One of our most significant challenges was setting up and maintaining our development environment. We encountered several issues when selecting an API due to unforeseen paywalls. Additionally, being our first hackathon, we struggled with time management and accurately estimating the time required for various tasks.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Some of the accomplishments we are proud of include learning and successfully implementing the Teller API, as well as creating an AI-powered tool for the first time. Additionally, mastering the collaborative use of a GitHub repository through Visual Studio Code was a significant achievement.

What we learned

Participating in our first hackathon, we swiftly learned many functions on the spot without prior experience. We mastered how to utilize a GitHub repository and push our code directly from Visual Studio Code. We also implemented AWS services like EC2 and Bedrock. Additionally, we became proficient with the MongoDB database. Finally, we learned how to employ Jinja and Flask to integrate Python with HTML.

What's next for BudgetMe

Our next step is to optimize the AI tool's performance. We also aim to launch BudgetMe as a mobile application on iOS and Android platforms in the future, while enhancing the app's accessibility and providing more customization options within the settings.

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