Personal Budgeting

Math 20-3

Topic: Personal Budgeting

Technology: Computer or Laptop with Microsoft Excel

Curricular Connection: Mathematics 20-3
General Outcome: Develop number sense and critical thinking skills
Specific Outcome: Solve problems that involve personal budgets

Global, Social or Ethical Issue:
Personal budgeting is an essential skill that all people should have, regardless of their
career and income. Every adult must find a source of income and decide how to spend the
money that they have. Many people choose to get credit cards and loans, however, it is
important to stay on stop of finances in order to avoid getting overwhelmed in debt. This
lesson teaches students how to analyze their income and expenses in order to save for
something that they want to purchase.

Research/Resources:
Alberta Education. (2008). Mathematics Grade 10-12 [Program of Studies]. [Edmonton],
Canada: Alberta Education.
Bedwin, C., Borgen, K., Healy, M., Kaisser, A., Pruner, M., Salvatore, P & Sufrin, D. (2011).
Personal Budgets. MathWorks 11 (pp. 300-343). Vancouver: Pacific Educational
Press.
Bedwin, C., Borgen, K., Healy, M., Kaisser, A., Pruner, M., Salvatore, P & Sufrin, D. (2011).
Personal Budgets. MathWorks 11 Teacher Resource (pp. 420-486). Vancouver:
Pacific Educational Press.
Lessons: Grades 9-12. (n.d.). Practical Money Skills for Life. Retrieved June 8, 2014, from
https://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/foreducators/lesson_plans/highschool.php.


Background

Mathematical Tasks:
Students will be given scenarios in which they must analyze budgets and suggest
changes to balance income, expenses and savings goals.
Students will prepare a personal budget.
Students will analyze and modify their budgets to create a savings plan for a future
goal.

Prior Knowledge: Students have already explored:
the elements that make up a personal budget
the difference between variable and fixed income and expenses in a personal
budget
what it means to balance income and expenses in a personal budget
how to gather data for a personal budget




Big Ideas:
Students will walk out of the math classroom with critical personal financial
knowledge.
Students will learn the importance of financial planning in order to save for
purchases and avoid personal debt.
Students will learn how to make, analyze and change a personal budget.


Opening

Students will be given the following set of questions to answer in their math journal:
How do you earn your money?
(Do you have a job? Do you receive an allowance? Do you receive cash as a gift on
your birthday?)
What do you spend your money on?
Are you currently saving money for anything?
How do you plan on saving money for your first vehicle, first home or
postsecondary education? (Choose at least one.)

After having time to respond to these questions in their journal, the students will be asked
to share some of their responses with the class.

Pedagogic Purpose:
The opening questions are meant to get students to recall their prior knowledge on
personal budgets. They also get students engaged in the lesson, as they require students
to think about things that they are saving for so that they can make a connection to the
importance of financial planning. Students begin thinking about their income, expenses
and how to alter their spending in order to save for big purchases. As students come in to
the classroom, it is useful to have something that they can get started on immediately.
These questions would be on the board so that students could immediately start writing
in their journals. Recording their responses in a journal will allow students to keep their
income and spending habits confidential, as money can be a difficult subject to discuss in
front of peers, however, students will be encouraged to share their responses if they feel
comfortable doing so.


Engagement & Inquiry

Activity 1: Analyzing three different personal budgets

Activity Description:
Students are given a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to open that contains three
sample scenarios, along with questions for students to respond to.
Students are to go through the three sample scenarios and respond to the
questions posed to them. They are asked to determine if each person is on track
towards saving for a goal and in order to do so, they must compare projected
income and expenses to actual income and expenses and suggest changes which
can be made to the budgets in future months. (The students are not told how to
complete the comparisons, however, they have already had lessons in which they



learned the elements that make up a budget and how to balance a personal
budget.)
In this activity, the students may use the spreadsheet to input formulas to calculate
total expenses, they may create graphs which make the comparisons more visual
and they may make changes to the data, which are immediately reflected
throughout the budget.
The teacher will walk around the classroom to ensure all students are on task and
to answer questions and assist as necessary.

Essential Inquiry Questions:
How do I analyze budgeted income and expenses, compared to actual income and
expenses, in order to avoid financial setbacks?
How do I adjust a personal budget in order to save for a goal?

Problem-Posing:
If each persons income changed, in what ways may their spending change?
If each person had a large variable expense one month, how would they afford to
pay for it?

Meeting Diversity of Student Learning Needs:
Students are engaging in an inquiry-based leaning activity that enables them to
work at different speeds and at different levels. The teacher will walk around to
ensure that each student is completing the tasks to the best of his or her ability.
High-achieving students will be encouraged to delve further to analyze projected
versus actual expenses, projected income versus projected expenses, actual
income versus actual expenses and to create visual representations of findings.
Lower-achieving students may be prompted by the teacher to complete the
activity. The teacher may suggest finding the total value of the expenses and
creating a visual representation of the data and may explain how to do so,
depending on the prior knowledge and ability of the student. The teacher may also
walk through an entire scenario with a student as an exemplar and have the
student complete the next two activities independently. The teacher may also
allow students to work collaboratively in partners in order to share ideas.

Resources Needed:
A computer or laptop with Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel Assignment Spreadsheet


Activity 2: Create a personal budget using pre-determined expenses

Activity Description:
Students are to create a budget, given a fixed income and list of expenses. They
can copy, paste and adjust the budgets in the sample scenarios or they can create a
new budget template.
Students are then asked to create a graphical representation of their expenses and
to explain why this type of representation may be more useful in analyzing a
budget.



Students are then asked to analyze their budget to determine if they have money
available for savings and how they could adjust their budget to increase their
savings. They are also asked how they would afford to deal with an unexpected
emergency expense.
The spreadsheet software allows students to effortlessly make a graphical
representation of the data and allows students to constantly make changes to their
budget that will instantly be reflected throughout the budget.
Finally, students are asked to reflect back on the questions that they answered at
the beginning of class to begin thinking about creating a personal budget with their
own personal income and expenses (a project for a subsequent class). They are to
write this response in their math journal.

Essential Inquiry Questions:
How do I create a personal budget?
How do I adjust a personal budget in order to save for a goal?
How do I adjust a personal budget in order to afford an unexpected expense?

Problem-Posing:
If your income changed, in what ways may your spending change?
If you were to move in with another person, how would this affect your budget?
If you suddenly lost your job, how would this affect your budget?

Essential Understandings:
Students will learn how to use a budget to effectively make decisions regarding
personal spending and saving.

Meeting Diversity of Student Learning Needs:
Students are engaging in an inquiry-based activity that enables them to work at
different speeds and at different levels. The teacher will walk around to ensure
that each student is completing the task to the best of their ability.
High-achieving students will be encouraged to research jobs that interest them,
along with projected income and expenses in order to record these values, rather
than the using the template given to them. They will also be asked if they can think
of any other factors that affect a personal budget and how they may deal with
these factors.
Lower-achieving students can use the sample scenarios from prior pages to try to
replicate a similar budget. The teacher will also assist these students more and
walk them through certain steps if necessary. Students will be encouraged to ask
each other questions as well, rather than always relying on the teacher for an
explanation.

Resources Needed:
A computer or laptop with Microsoft Excel and internet access
Microsoft Excel Assignment Spreadsheet
Math Journal and Writing Utensil






Review, Extension and Assessment

Self-Assessment:
At the end of this lesson, the students are to write in their math journals and
explain how they can use what theyve learned in this lesson in order to create a
personal budget to save for a personal goal. The students are also to include any
elements of the lesson that they struggled with, as well as elements that they found
interesting.

Formative Assessment:
The teacher will walk around the class and look at students work on their
computer screens to assess understanding.
The teacher will collect the students math journals at the end of the class to assess
what students have learned and how they plan to apply it to create a personal
budget of their own. The teacher will also respond in the journal if students posed
any questions or indicated that they struggled with a particular concept.

Summative Assessment:
The students have been introduced to a unit project in which they must create
their own personal budget. The students are currently recording their monthly
income and expenses and in a subsequent lesson, the students will use this
information to create a personal budget, which will be a summative assessment.