Python Expense Tracker 💰

A simple command-line expense tracker built with Python. This project allows users to record, view, delete, and calculate their expenses while storing the data in a JSON file.

📌 Features

• Add new expenses
• View all recorded expenses
• Delete an expense
• Calculate total expenses
• Save expenses to a JSON file
• Load saved expenses when the program starts
• Handle invalid user input

🛠️ Technologies Used

• Python 3

• JSON for data storage

• Python built-in functions such as:

  • json
  • input()
  • try/except
  • Lists
  • Dictionaries
  • Functions
  • Loops
  • Conditional statements

📂 Project Structure

python-expense-tracker/
│
├── expense_tracker.py
├── expenses.json
└── README.md

expenses.json is used to store the expense data.

🚀 How to Run

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/your-username/python-expense-tracker.git

2. Open the project folder

cd python-expense-tracker

3. Run the program

python expense_tracker.py

📋 How It Works

When the program starts, the user is presented with a menu:

--- Expense Tracker ---
1. Add expense
2. View expenses
3. Delete expense
4. View total
5. Quit

Add an Expense

The user enters a description and amount.

Enter expense description: Food
Enter expense amount: 50

Expense added: Food for GHC50.00

View Expenses

The user can view all recorded expenses:

1. Food for GHC50.00
2. Transport for GHC20.00
3. Internet for GHC100.00

Delete an Expense

The user selects an expense by its number:

Enter the number of the expense to delete: 2

Removed expense: Transport

View Total

The program calculates the total amount spent:

Total expenses: GHC150.00

💾 Data Storage

The application uses a JSON file called expenses.json to store expenses.

Example:

[
    {
        "description": "Food",
        "amount": 50.0
    },
    {
        "description": "Internet",
        "amount": 100.0
    }
]

This allows expenses to remain saved even after the program is closed.

🛡️ Input Validation

The program includes basic error handling to prevent invalid input from crashing the application.

For example, if the user enters text instead of a number for an expense amount:

Invalid amount. Please enter a valid number.

The program also checks that the user selects a valid expense number when deleting an expense.

🎯 What I Learned

Building this project helped me practice:

• Python functions
• Lists and dictionaries
• while loops
• if/elif conditional statements
• Exception handling with try/except
• Reading and writing JSON files
• Working with user input
• Basic data persistence
• Structuring a small Python application

🔮 Future Improvements

Some features I may add in the future include:

• Expense categories
• Dates for each expense
• Monthly expense summaries
• Search and filter functionality
• A graphical user interface
• Exporting expense reports
• Budget tracking

Built with Python as a practical project to improve programming and problem-solving skills.