DEV Community: Varadraj Galgali

A better way to manage apartment expenses - part 2

Varadraj Galgali — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 07:00:10 +0000

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 3: Slow and Steady

What I Built

This week, I added a couple of useful features to my apartment expense management app. Know how you have dozens of AMCs, scheduled services, repairs and usually end up slipping up somewhere. Not anymore, a scheduler is now a part of my app - it lets you add services, configure reminders, cost details, etc & makes things much easier!

Demo

https://varad64.github.io/apartment-xp/

Code

https://github.com/varad64/apartment-xp

How I Built It

Deployed on Render, using the gemma model for OCR

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

I believe open innovation is a powerful mechanism to deliver state of the art solutions without a cutting edge lab or upfront costs, especially useful when developing solutions for the community.

The Lazy Payoff

It saves tons of effort. Until now, each month a resident had to volunteer for that month's expense management, oversee any services and repairs and usually ended up forgetting something - because when the lift breaks down, that becomes the priority and the inverter checkup vanished into the blackhole.

No longer, this app will track, schedule & remind. All you need to do, is oversee!

Prize Categories

Render, Gemma

An Apartment Utility management app - OCR powered by gemma3:4b

Varadraj Galgali — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 21:37:31 +0000

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle

What I Built

A simple FastAPI app, with OCR capabilities powered by Google's openweight model - gemma3:4b.

Each month, the apartment I stay in, has several utility bills and every month an owner collects all the bills, validates & calculates the amount per flat by taking into account the area of the said flat.

The app would automate the manual effort & going forward, each owner may only act as a supervisor / human in the loop.

Demo

varad64.github.io

Code

How I Built It

I used the gemma3:4b model primarily for the OCR capabilities, such that the manual effort is completely eliminated. There still exists an option to enter the bill amount, in cases, when the output from gemma might not be correct or if the user would prefer to enter the amount rather than uploading an image.

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

I believe open innovation is a powerful mechanism to deliver state of the art solutions without a cutting edge lab or upfront costs, especially useful when developing solutions for the community.

My First User

A neighbor, they liked it. And, we immediately discussed how it can be improved, to add reminders for payments, scheduling cleaning, services, etc.

Prize Categories

I am entering the gemma category.

Grocery price comparator

Varadraj Galgali — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 12:45:28 +0000

This is a submission for the Runner H "AI Agent Prompting" Challenge

What I Built

Every month, I spend at least an hour browsing different websites to figure out which website gives me the best deal for each item on my grocery list

Demo

How I Used Runner H

Thanks to this hackathon, I used Runner H and Surfer H to create an agent which asks the user for the product they are interested in purchasing, the product quantity and the user's area(PIN) code. After getting these details, the agent will fetch prices from Amazon, Flipkart and Reliance Jiomart and provide a summary of where the product can be purchased at the best price.

Use Case & Impact

Everybody, who would like to purchase grocery at the best price and would not want to spend a lot of time comparing websites.