Activity 1: Design your own
Step-by-step instructions
1. Invite students to brainstorm what they learned about budgeting in Lesson 11.
2. Remind students that budgeting is a simple way to make sure that people can meet the demands of money going out.
3. Ask students if anyone has ever written down a budget? Maybe when they were on holidays or at Irish college, or if they were given a set amount of money for a set amount of time. What does the class think is the main advantage of a written bud
Note: Depending on your class you may wish to provide one or more of the following prompts. The advantages of a written budget include:
- A way of planning ahead and pacing your spending, so that you can get the things you need/want
- Writing down money plans makes it more real and helps you to measure your progress over a period of time
- Reduce the risk of over-spending
4. Tell the class that they are going to work in small groups to create a template for a weekly budget. Each group will need to think about ways of recording INCOME (money coming in) and EXPENDITURE (money going out).
Note: Your class will find it useful to go back to their Weekly spending diary (Lesson 3 – Homework Task) to examine their expenditure (money going out) and come up with categories of expenditure.
Stress to the class that they are to work on the template only and are not expected to fill in amounts for sources of income or expenditure.
5. Divide the class into small groups and give each group a flipchart sheet and some markers.
6. Write the headings ‘MONEY COMING IN’ and ‘MONEY GOING OUT’ on the white/blackboard.
7. Take feedback from a sample of groups, recording what they say in relation to sources of income and items of expenditure under the appropriate heading on the white/blackboard.
8. Display the Sample weekly budget and encourage students to question anything they see, for example they may wonder why savings is included as ‘money out’. If so, explain that savings is money put aside to help you get things you want/need in the future. If you want to make sure you save something each week or month, record the amount as ‘money going out’. This means savings are a plan instead of an afterthought and this means they are ‘put away’.
Note: Section 3 covers savings in more detail.
9. Invite students to amend the Sample weekly budget to reflect the relevant income and expenditure categories suggested by student groups.
10. Conclude by making sure that students understand how to calculate total expenditure, total income and profit/shortfall.
