How to Build a Simple Budget Tracker Using Python

💡 Why build this?

Tracking expenses manually is tedious. As a developer, you can automate it with just a few lines of code! This tutorial walks you through creating a simple budget tracker in Python (with a JavaScript alternative at the end).

Step 1: Set Up Your Python Environment
You’ll need:

1. Python 3.x (Download here)

2. A code editor (VS Code, PyCharm, etc.)

Install the required library:

pip install pandas
(We’ll use pandas for data handling—it’s like Excel for Python!)

Step 2: Create & Load Your Budget Data
Create a budget.csv file:

csv
Date,Category,Amount
2024-01-01,Groceries,50.00
2024-01-03,Transport,20.00

Now, load it in Python:

`import pandas as pd

budget = pd.read_csv('budget.csv')
print(budget.head()) # Show first 5 entries`

Step 3: Add Monthly Spending Analysis

Let’s summarize spending by category:

monthly_spending = budget.groupby('Category')['Amount'].sum()
print(monthly_spending)

Output:

Category

Groceries 50.00

Transport 20.00 `

Step 4: Visualize Your Spending (Optional)

For a nice graph, install matplotlib:

pip install matplotlib

Then add:

`import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

monthly_spending.plot(kind='bar')
plt.title('Monthly Expenses')
plt.ylabel('Amount ($)')
plt.show()`

Need more advanced personal finance insights? Check out ZVV’s financial guides