Budget Webquest

Budgeting is often ignored in Saskatchewan high school and without any real reasons.

In fact there is almost nothing about it in the Evergreen Curriculum despite the importance and the need of financial planning. One area it is included in is Money Management in the Life Transitions area. It can also be included in the Extended Study Module in Practical and Applied Arts.

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A student should not be going into the world with no idea how to handle money. What this Budget WebQuest does is helps the student learn to manage their money on a monthly budget.

Students will receive a paycheck each week and pay a variety of bills including cable, electric, car payment and most important - rent. They must make sure they have enough money to pay all their bills and still have some left over to have some fun!

The basic task for the students is to determine the cost of all of the monthly expenses needed to live on their own. They will keep track of all of bills and paychecks in a checkbook. At the end of the project, they will determine the percentage of each "category" of bill and create a circle graph using Microsoft Excel.

But that's easier said than done.

The links on the site include all the forms the students will need to complete the budget.

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I think this would be a natural fit in an Accounting class when talking about assets, liabilities, capital and balancing books.

What I would probably do though is take advantage of the Extended Study Module to use the Budget WebQuest as part of its own separate mini unit on financial planning. It could be done before you officially start the accounting unit or after.

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For several years the Business Education Faculty has been lobbying to have a Financial planning aspect added somewhere to the Evergreen Curriculum because students need to know how to handle money. They are getting credit cards at an earlier age than ever, have higher student loas than ever and still want all the things young people want (a car, a place of their own and so on). Financial planning is one of the keys to helping them make the transition from student to adult but it is sadly lacking in Saskatchewan schools.