GhostSpend – AI Hidden Expense Detector

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  Homepage

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  Dashboard page

Inspiration

Most people track their expenses but still don’t realize where their money is actually going. Small, frequent transactions, unused subscriptions, and behavioral spending patterns often go unnoticed. I wanted to build something that doesn't just track expenses, but actually reveals hidden financial leaks.

What it does

GhostSpend is an AI-powered web application that analyzes user expenses and detects hidden spending patterns. It identifies unnecessary expenses, predicts overspending trends, and provides actionable suggestions to help users save money.

How we built it

The frontend is built using React for a clean and responsive UI. The backend uses Node.js and Express to handle data processing. Expense data is analyzed using AI APIs (OpenAI/Gemini) to detect patterns and generate insights. Charts and dashboards are used to visualize spending behavior.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest challenges was designing effective AI prompts that generate meaningful and non-generic insights. Another challenge was structuring raw financial data in a way that makes pattern detection accurate and useful.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We successfully built a system that goes beyond basic expense tracking and provides intelligent financial insights. The ability to detect hidden spending patterns makes this project unique and impactful.

What we learned

We learned how to integrate AI into real-world applications, perform prompt engineering, and design user-focused dashboards that communicate insights effectively.

What's next for GhostSpend

We plan to add real-time bank integration, advanced financial scoring, and predictive analytics to help users make even smarter financial decisions.

Built With

• chart.js
• css
• express.js
• firebase
• html
• javascript
• node.js
• openai-api
• react.js