Description

This fun budgeting project incorporates personal financial literacy and real-world math skills! Students will learn to create a realistic budget for their needs, wants, and savings and will research the real costs of everyday expenses.

Learn the importance of a balanced budget to avoid overspending

Students start the project by drawing three cards to determine their career and salary, their spouse’s career and salary (if they have one), and their number of children. They will set up a balanced budget aiming to spend 50% of their income on needs, 30% on wants, and 20% on future savings. An emphasis is placed on the importance of savings to avoid future debt.

Hands-on experience learning the real costs of living independently

They’ll learn to research the cost of an apartment in your area using an apartment search website, estimate actual monthly payments on a car loan, the cost of eating out at their favorite full-service and fast-food restaurants, and more! They’ll also get a first-hand look at the true amount of taxes taken from their paychecks.

Easy-to-follow student project packet

This project includes a fifteen-page student packet that will walk students through setting up the budget step by step. The project is separated into six parts that can be assigned all at once or one at a time. The six parts include Income & Taxes, Savings, Needs, Wants, Balancing Your Budget, and an optional Surprise Expense activity.

Surprise students with unexpected expenses

At the end of the project, students will draw a ‘surprise expense’ card that will add an unexpected expense to their budget! They’ll learn how to adjust their budget to accommodate new expenses.

Prep-work for this project is simple!

Includes a set of Google Slides that introduce the project and provide instructions for each part of the project. The student project packet and salary/children cards are ready to print and go.

This resource includes:

• Set of Google Slides with Project Instructions and Reminders
• 15 Page Student Project Packet with step-by-step instructions and calculation worksheets for students
• 32 Career and Salary Cards (Editable)
• 32 Spouse Career and Salary Cards (Editable)
• 32 Children Cards
• 32 Scenario Cards with unexpected expenses (Editable)
• Sample Answer Key