BrokeBuddy

Broke Buddy: Your Budget’s Best Friend, Always on Duty.

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Inspiration

We’ve all been there—trying to stick to a budget but ending up spending more than we planned because life happens! Whether it’s an unexpected outing or a tempting new drink at your favorite café, managing money can feel overwhelming. That’s what inspired us to create Broke Buddy: a simple, friendly app that helps you stay on top of your budget and spend smarter without the guilt.

What it does

Broke Buddy is like your financially-savvy best friend in your pocket. You set a spending limit, and the app tracks your expenses in real time. When you get close to your budget, it sends you a gentle nudge to stay on track—like a friendly reminder, not a scolding. It’s designed to make budgeting fun, simple, and approachable.

How we built it

We used the MERN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, React, and Node.js) to develop Broke Buddy. React powers the user interface, making it smooth and interactive, while MongoDB stores all your spending data securely. We used Express.js and Node.js to create a seamless backend for handling data and user interactions. Apart from that, we made use of the Plaid API which helped us to connect to the customer bank accounts securely. We will then use that data to conduct the analysis and provide valuable insights. The design is lightweight, responsive, and user-friendly—perfect for students and anyone looking for a better way to manage their money.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest challenges that we faced was to get the transaction data of the customers securely. We researched about that and found the Plaid API. It was our introduction to this API and took time to understand it. We are not fully able to integrate that but in future version of broke-buddy, we will fully integrate it and make it much more useful.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud of creating an app that’s practical yet fun to use. Designing a tool that can genuinely help people take control of their finances while keeping the experience lighthearted was a big win for us. We’re also proud of the user-friendly design and the real-time budget-tracking functionality we implemented.

What we learned

It was my second hackathon and I was also working during this weekend. This created a lot of time pressure on me but I tried handling it quite well. I learnt that in life there will be different situations and I can make the best that is possible under that conditions. Technology wise, I got introduced to the Plaid API and learnt how we can extract the transaction data of customers securely.

What's next for BrokeBuddy

Many things are under development. Some things shown in demo are still mockups. But in future versions, you will see more categorization. You will not need to keep track of anything. Broke Buddy will manage and track everything for you. It will be more like your best money buddy which will help you not go broke. That's why it's Broke Buddy !!!!!

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