Lab Description
This comprehensive budgeting lab will help students master budgeting skills and is crucial for their financial well-being. This lab is not just theoretical knowledge but is filled with a lot of interactive activities and practical scenarios. Students will go through simulations and hands-on exercises that simulate real-life financial scenarios.
The lab is divided into four sections
- Basics of Budgeting
- Budgeting Factors
- Building Your Budget
- Conclusion
Please take a look at the outline tab to see the activities included in each section.
Each section is preceded and followed by a review and classroom discussion materials that teachers can use.
Some of the core activities are -
Basics of Budgeting
- A quick start activity to allocate the salary of a person into different expenses
- Introduction to budgeting and drag-and-drop activity to classify expenses.
- Understanding discretionary and non-discretionary budgets and categorizing expenses worksheet.
- Analyzing John's budget
- Budgeting strategies such as 50/30/20, zero-based budgeting, etc., and an interactive worksheet to create a zero-based budget.
- Introduction to Needs & Wants and an interactive worksheet to choose their choices on different categories such as housing, food, entertainment etc.
Budgeting Factors
- Analyze American's average monthly expenses
- Dive deeper into housing expenses with worksheet activities on rent analysis etc.
- Dive deeper into transportation expenses with worksheet activities to analyze transportation modes, calculate total car ownership cost, etc.
- Dive deeper into food expenses with worksheet activities on the USDA food calculator, average food expense analysis, etc.
- Impact of inflation on budgeting with a worksheet that includes an inflation calculator.
- Comparison-shopping and activity to do comparison shopping.
Building Your Budget
- Help Sarah - a fictitious character, to build her budget by using
- Interactive worksheet to choose a career - analyze education loan required, salary, sample monthly paycheck, etc.
- Interactive worksheet to set short and long-term goals
- Interactive worksheet to build the final budget based on the salary and goals.
- Students will create their budget for a semester.
Conclusion
- Write a letter to parents explaining the importance of budgeting.
- Feedback
By providing an interactive learning experience, we equip students with the necessary skills to navigate the complexities of personal finance confidently.
Who this course is for
Middle and High school students
Student Feedbacks
We asked students, what you remember the most about the lab, and here are some of the responses
Basics of Budgeting (76 Minutes)
Sub Activities
- Quick Start
This is a reading activity. Students will read and understand what a budget is and different components such as income, expense, saving, etc.
Sub Activities
- Review Questions
- Classify Expenses
In this reading activity, students will read and understand the reasons why you should budget, such as Financial Awareness, Help you achieve your goalsExpense Control and Wise Spending, etc.
Sub Activities
- Review Questions
In this reading activity, students will find the definitions of discretionary and non-discretionary expenses with examples.
Sub Activities
- Categorizing Expenses
- John's Budget
In this reading activity, students will read the story of Peter Adeney who is also known as Mr. Money Mustache who retired in his early 30s by adopting a frugal lifestyle and practicing strict budgeting.
Sub Activities
- Review Questions
Students will read and understand different budgeting strategies such as - Zero-Based Budgeting, 50/30/20 Budgeting, Pay Yourself First, and the Envelope System.
Sub Activities
- Review Questions
- Zero-based Budgeting
Students will read and understand the difference between Needs & Wants and how they will affect a budget.
Sub Activities
- Choose Your Needs & Wants
- How wants will hamper you?
- Review Questions
Budgeting Factors (90 Minutes)
The learning objective of this activity is to enable students to:
- Analyze and interpret financial data represented in pie charts, including average expenses across various categories for all Americans.
- Understand the distribution of expenses and income among different age groups, fostering awareness of financial trends and priorities at different life stages.
- Develop critical thinking skills by evaluating the implications of spending habits, identifying areas for potential budget adjustments, and making informed financial decisions.
- Apply knowledge of budgeting principles to real-world scenarios, enhancing students' ability to create effective budgets, set financial goals, and manage resources efficiently.
Students will read and understand why the topic "Housing" is important when it comes to budgeting, about the Moving Out Milestone, Rising Rent Costs, Homeownership Trends, etc., and the tips for budgeting for a house.
Sub Activities
- Review Questions
- Rent & Other Factors
Students will read and understand the importance of transportation in budgeting, factors affecting transportation budgets such as car ownership cost, commute distance, public transportation etc.
Sub Activities
- Modes of Transport & Cost of Owning a Car
- Reduce Your Transportation Costs
- Environmental Impact
Students will read and understand the importance of food in budgeting, Eating Out Trends, Health and Nutrition Considerations, etc.
Sub Activities
- Average Food Expenses in USA
- USDA Food Calculator
- USDA Food Calculator
- Why Eating Out Is Increasing?
Students will read about inflation and how it affects budgeting, such as Reduced Buying Power, Rising Expenses, and how to mitigate it.
Sub Activities
- Review Questions
- Inflation Calculator
- No Pay Raise?
Students will read about comparison shopping and how it helps to save money.
Sub Activities
- Comparison Shopping
Building Your Budget (37 Minutes)
Students will read the story of a fictitious character, Sarah, who is about to finish school and has big dreams of retiring early. Students will help Sarah choose a career, set goals, and create a budget plan using a series of worksheet activities.
Sub Activities
- Choose a career
- Choose goals
- Plan the budget
Students will read the different steps to be followed to create a semester budget.
Sub Activities
- Review Questions
- Your Semester Budget
National Standards in Financial Education
Students will know that Compensation for a job or career can be in the form of wages, salaries, commissions, tips, or bonuses, and may also include contributions to employee benefits, such as health insurance, retirement savings plans, and education reimbursement programs .. Students will use this knowledge to 12-1a . Research potential income and employee benefit packages that are likely to be offered to new employees by various companies, government agencies, or not-for- profit organizations . 12-1b . Explain why people should evaluate employee benefits in addition to wages and salaries when choosing between job and career opportunities . 12-1c . Differentiate between contributory and non-contributory employee benefits . 12-1d . Examine the benefits of participating in employer- sponsored retirement savings plans and healthcare savings plans .
Students will know that Employers generally pay higher wages or salaries to more educated, skilled, and productive workers than to less educated, skilled, and productive workers .. Students will use this knowledge to 12-4a . Identify different types of jobs and careers where wages and salaries depend on a workerâs productivity and skills . 12-4b . Explain why wages or salaries vary among employees in different types of jobs and among workers in the same jobs . 12-4c . Discuss possible explanations for the persistence of race and gender pay gaps .
Students will know that A budget helps people achieve their financial goals by allocating income to necessary and desired spending, saving, and philanthropy .. Students will use this knowledge to 12-1a . Identify their short-term and long-term financial goals . 12-1b . Develop a budget to allocate current income to necessary and desired spending, including estimates for both fixed and variable expenses . 12-1c . Explain methods for adjusting a budget for unexpected expenses or emergencies . 12-1d . Evaluate the advantages of using budgeting tools, such as spreadsheets or apps .
Students will know that Consumer decisions are influenced by the price of products or services, the price of alternatives, the consumerâs budget and preferences, and potential impact on the environment, society, and economy .. Students will use this knowledge to 12-2a . Select a product or service and describe the various factors that may influence a consumerâs purchase decision . 12-2b . Describe a process for making an informed consumer decision . 12-2c . List the positive and negative effects of a recent consumer decision on the environment, society, and the economy .
Students will know that Consumers incur costs and realize benefits when searching for information related to the purchase of goods and services .. Students will use this knowledge to 12-5a . Explain how pre-purchase research encourages consumers to avoid impulse buying . 12-5b . Brainstorm consumer research strategies and resources to use when making purchase decisions . 12-5c . Analyze social media marketing and advertising techniques designed to encourage spending .