Develop a Budget Tracking Application Using Python Tkinter & Pandas – Part 1 (Suitable for Beginners)

In this tutorial, we will be creating a budget tracker app using Python, Tkinter, and Pandas. This app will allow users to input their expenses and income, categorize them, and view a summary of their spending habits. It will help users keep track of their finances and stay on budget.

In this particular part of the tutorial, we will be setting up the basic structure of the app and getting started with creating the data input form using Tkinter.

Before we begin, make sure you have Python installed on your computer. If you don’t already have it, you can download it from the official Python website.

First, let’s install the necessary packages for this project. We will need Pandas for data manipulation and Tkinter for the user interface. You can install them using pip by running the following commands in your terminal or command prompt:

pip install pandas

Tkinter comes pre-installed with Python, so you don’t need to install it separately.

Now that we have the necessary packages installed, let’s start by creating a new Python file for our project. You can name it budget_tracker.py. Open this file in your favorite code editor or IDE.

First, let’s import the necessary modules at the beginning of our script:

import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import ttk
import pandas as pd

Next, let’s create a basic Tkinter window for our app:

# Create the main window
root = tk.Tk()
root.title("Budget Tracker App")

Now, let’s create the labels and entry fields for the data input form. We will create fields for the date, description, category, and amount of the expense or income:

# Create labels
date_label = ttk.Label(root, text="Date")
date_label.grid(row=0, column=0, padx=5, pady=5)

description_label = ttk.Label(root, text="Description")
description_label.grid(row=1, column=0, padx=5, pady=5)

category_label = ttk.Label(root, text="Category")
category_label.grid(row=2, column=0, padx=5, pady=5)

amount_label = ttk.Label(root, text="Amount")
amount_label.grid(row=3, column=0, padx=5, pady=5)

# Create entry fields
date_entry = ttk.Entry(root)
date_entry.grid(row=0, column=1, padx=5, pady=5)

description_entry = ttk.Entry(root)
description_entry.grid(row=1, column=1, padx=5, pady=5)

category_entry = ttk.Entry(root)
category_entry.grid(row=2, column=1, padx=5, pady=5)

amount_entry = ttk.Entry(root)
amount_entry.grid(row=3, column=1, padx=5, pady=5)

Now that we have the data input form set up, let’s create buttons for adding the data to our budget tracker and for viewing the summary of expenses:

# Create buttons
add_button = ttk.Button(root, text="Add", width=10)
add_button.grid(row=4, column=0, columnspan=2, padx=5, pady=5)

summary_button = ttk.Button(root, text="View Summary", width=15)
summary_button.grid(row=5, column=0, columnspan=2, padx=5, pady=5)

Finally, let’s display the Tkinter window and run the main event loop:

# Run the main event loop
root.mainloop()

That’s it for Part 1 of our tutorial! In this part, we set up the basic structure of our budget tracker app and created the data input form using Tkinter. In the next part, we will add functionality to the buttons for adding data and viewing the summary of expenses.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful and easy to follow. Stay tuned for Part 2 where we will continue building our budget tracker app. Happy coding!