Budget Project

Students learn all about budgeting in this personal financial literacy budgeting project that looks at career choices, car choices, housing choices, habit choices and savings. Will students make good choices in this project reminiscent of the game of life?

First, students mix and match lifestyle cards to build the lifestyle they'd like to live:

CAREER CARD: choose from 6 careers, each with its own salary and student loan payment,

HOME CARD: choose from 4 apartments, each with its own rent, electricity, internet and food costs. Each apartment is also a different distance from work,

CAR CARD: choose from 4 cars, each with different car payments and mpg,

HABIT CARD: choose from 6 habits, like "coffee drinker" or "dinner eater" that increase monthly costs.

Next, students calculate net monthly income by using a 70% approximation, and walk through their 7-page answer packet calculating costs and analyzing budgets. Will they stay within budget or go over in any of the budgeting categories? Where can costs be cut?

There are 576 possible lifestyle choices given the 20 cards! Two answer keys are provided. One answer key is a "budget friendly lifestyle" that chooses all of the least expensive choices. The second answer key is the "expensive lifestyle" answer key and chooses all of the most expensive choices.

This project has been added to the consumer math curriculum's Budgets folder.

This project is also on TPT, if you prefer shopping there.