Teaching budgeting doesn’t have to be boring! Budgeting is an effective way to avoid debt as an adult, but it can be tricky to teach to teenagers who haven’t had many life experiences or financial emergencies yet.
Check out these budgeting lesson and activity ideas, which will give students a foundation for understanding budgeting and give them experience managing their money (even if they don’t have any yet!).
50/30/20 Budgeting Lesson & Station Activities
There are many methods for teaching students to budget their money, but I’ve found that the 50/30/20 method is a great place to start because students easily understand it.
Here’s how it works: Budget 50% of your income on needs, no more than 30% on wants, and at least 20% on savings. It’s simple and gives students a starting point to help them decide whether something fits within their budget (as long as your students understand the difference between a want and a need!).
This lesson will give students the background they’ll need to understand wants vs needs, 50/30/20 budgeting, and decision-making skills to determine whether items fit within a budget. Students will also rotate through stations that will give them more practice with scenarios.
You can grab this lesson here. It has everything you need to teach the basics of budgeting, including Google Slides, guided notes for students, and station activities with a recording sheet.
Keeping a Spending Log Activity (+ Writing Checks!)
A major part of budgeting is knowing where your money is going! This lesson will teach your students to keep a spending log, pay bills, and write checks.
Students will use a set of task cards with expenses on them to keep track of one month’s worth of expenses. They’ll also have to determine whether purchases are wants or needs so that they can check whether their spending fits within their budget.
You can grab this lesson here. Google Slides, guided notes, and the task card activity are all included!
Keeping a Spending Log with Board Games
This activity is always a student favorite! You’ll need a class set of board games that use money – like Monopoly or the Game of Life. Instead of using the money in the game, have students keep track of their cash using a spending log!
This will give them lots of practice using a spending log and also works as a fun activity before a break. (It also makes for a great emergency substitute activity if you need one.)
If you need a spending log to use with students, you can grab mine for FREE in the Free Resource Library. You can sign up at the bottom of this post or on the Free Resource Library page here.
Budgeting for Groceries Activity
This is another student favorite! Have your students build a five-day meal plan for two on a budget. You can adjust their ‘budget’ to be as big or small as you’d like—obviously, the smaller the budget, the greater the challenge.
I recommend having students use the website of a grocery store that is local to your area to look up prices so they can actually learn how much groceries cost.
Another tip: I recommend going over your expectations for healthy meal planning and what will be considered a ‘meal.’ Otherwise, you’ll have students who work for two minutes and then say they’re finished because they planned ramen for every meal. (I’m speaking from experience here, unfortunately.)
You can grab the worksheet I use for this activity here!
Need even more budgeting resources and ideas?
If you’d like to teach a full budgeting unit to your students, you can get the full unit, which includes these resources, plus a project and a quiz, here.
You can also enter your email below to access my free resource library with financial literacy resources. I’ll also send you weekly tips, ideas, and resources to help you teach financial literacy!
