A student-first fintech platform for smarter budgeting, savings, and financial resilience.
College students often manage their finances with irregular income cycles, typically receiving allowances or stipends on a monthly basis. Without structured tools, this leads to inconsistent spending, financial stress, and poor long-term habits.
Gastador was inspired by a real, recurring problem: money runs out not because students spend too much once—but because they lack visibility and planning over time. This project began as a personal solution and evolved into a scalable fintech concept aimed at helping students build sustainable financial behavior early.
Gastador is an all-in-one personal finance dashboard designed for students and early earners. It allows users to:
- Define flexible budget periods (monthly, weekly, or custom)
- Track expenses and income with customizable categories
- Monitor remaining budget and spending velocity in real time
- Create sinking funds for goal-based savings (tuition, devices, travel)
- Build an emergency fund aligned with financial best practices
- Track assets and calculate total net worth
At its core, Gastador transforms raw spending data into actionable financial awareness.
Gastador applies simple but effective financial models to guide decision-making:
Remaining Budget [ \text{Remaining} = \text{Total Budget} - \sum \text{Expenses} ]
Emergency Fund Recommendation [ \text{Emergency Target} = \text{Monthly Expenses} \times (3 \text{ to } 6) ]
Sinking Fund Progress [ \text{Progress (%)} = \frac{\text{Saved Amount}}{\text{Target Amount}} \times 100 ]
These formulas power real-time progress bars and insights throughout the platform.
Gastador is a fully client-side fintech MVP, built with:
- HTML, JavaScript, and Tailwind CSS for performance and rapid iteration
- Chart.js for real-time financial visualizations
- localStorage for authentication flow, onboarding, and persistent financial state
The UI and user flows were designed in Figma before implementation. Development was accelerated using AI-assisted tools like Cursor, ChatGPT, and Gemini, enabling rapid prototyping while maintaining code clarity.
The primary challenge was managing external dependencies and build tooling, particularly configuring Tailwind CSS with NPM and ensuring compatibility with Netlify deployment. Solving these issues required a deeper understanding of modern front-end pipelines and production environments.
- Shipped a production-quality fintech MVP within a solo hackathon
- Designed and deployed a complete financial system without a backend
- Built a modular architecture capable of future feature expansion
- Published and managed a first-ever GitHub repository independently
This validated the feasibility of a lightweight, offline-capable finance platform.
This project strengthened my skills in:
- Front-end system design and state management
- Translating financial concepts into scalable software logic
- UX-driven product development
- Shipping and deploying real-world applications end to end
More importantly, it reinforced the importance of product-market empathy in fintech.
The next phase focuses on scalability and monetization:
- Secure authentication and cloud synchronization
- Multi-device support
- Predictive analytics (spending forecasts, alerts)
- Personalized financial recommendations
- Potential partnerships with student banks and digital wallets
Long-term, Gastador aims to become a financial operating system for students, helping users transition from allowance-based budgeting to independent financial management.
To run this project locally:
- Clone the repo:
git clone https://github.com/unisA02/GASTADOR.git - Install dependencies:
npm install - Start the app:
npm start
- Eunice Almeyda - BS Computer Science Student (UPLB)
This repository has been archived for hackathon judging purposes.