Create a College Student Budget Approximate Time Needed:   45-60 minutes OR multi-day project Lesson Summary:   Students will learn how budgets work and why they are valuable, as well as learn how to create a student budget. Lesson Objective:   Students will, through group discussions and web-based research, create a budget and see how to develop a concrete plan with money. Students will also communicate their ideas and findings to the group in a class presentation. Materials and Resources: ECOS College Search or College Directory ECOS Life Skills Calculator Paper and pen and/or pencil Helpful Hints:   Students can work individually, but would preferably work in groups of two or three. This exercise can be repeated more than once as students are introduced to various aspects of college/career life. Be sure to emphasize that this is not a traditional math exercise with one right, absolute answer. Students are formulating estimated budgets for the practice of doing so, not to see if all their numbers add up correctly. Activities Go to the Life Skills section of ECOS and click on Resources. Then, click on Finance and choose the "Budgets" Article. Read the article and answer the following questions on a separate piece of paper. What is a budget? List three advantages of using budgets. Have you ever used a budget before? If yes, when? How did it work for you? If you were to estimate your total monthly expenses as a college student, what would you guess? Go to the Weblinks in the Finance section and choose "Student Budget Planner." Fill in the Budget Calculator on the TD Student Central website based on your own estimation of costs. Print out your results. Look at your results and discuss them with your group. Answer the following questions in a group discussion: Do your estimations seem accurate and realistic? Are you surprised by any of the numbers and/or results? For instance, are your total monthly expenses more than you expected? Each group of students should present their sample budget in front of the class, listing their estimates for each individual expense and sharing their answers to the research questions. The teacher/facilitator should be able to speak to the following issues: Common themes found in the budgets presented by students. Reality of student estimates (may compare student estimates with real-world examples). Importance of budgets (may provide other examples of budgets such as, the school's budget, giving concrete examples of how these budgets affect every-day life at the school). Evaluation:   The presentation or a combination of the presentation and the notes from the research. Possible Adaptations:   After the first budget exercise, other budget exercises may be introduced. For example, students can create a budget based on a specific scenario, such as paying tuition at a specific school and finding out the average amount of student aid at that school. After researching the school, students can create a budget with real numbers. A non-student budget may be created as a supplement to this exercise. For example, students can create a budget based on finding a specific career's salary, found in the ECOS Career Directory, and researching living expenses in a particular area of the country.