Go Budgeting is a website designed
to teach financial literacy skills to junior secondary school students. Students
are allocated a real life scenario and must then budget their income
accordingly. To use Go Budgeting with a
class the following notes should be carefully followed.
The Home Page has buttons
for: New budget - this will allocate the scenario to a student Load a budget and
Save a budget buttons allow students to save their work at the end of the period
and to complete it the following lesson.
The Job profile button gives information about the scenario the
student has been allocated - this is at random and is selected from 15 different
possibilities.
|
The Shopping list – There are four alternatives to insert the prices:
|
|
|
Premium prices – prices are inserted automatically and are based on
premium brands in expensive areas.
|
|
|
Average prices – some premium and some discounted prices to give an
average.
|
|
|
Discount prices – prices are based on using generic brand
products in large supermarkets.
|
|
|
I will use my own prices- allows students to insert their own prices.
These can be obtained by visiting a local supermarket
(A Shopping List can be obtained from the Go Budgeting website).
|
Once the prices have been obtained they are entered into the
Shopping List on the Website.
When the prices have been entered into
the shopping list the students go to the next page which is titled “Meal Planner”.
This allows students to plan meals for the week. It is a good idea to ensure
they try to keep within their budget.
Once the meal planning has been done the students
should proceed to the next page titled “Other”.
This is where things such as phone, electricity etc. are budgeted for.
When the “Other page; is complete students click on the page titled
Quiz and complete the quiz. Their answers
determine the amount of interest/dividends they will receive.
Once the quiz is completed click on the button “Budget”
this gives final details of the budget in a table format.
Students should now compare their tables of income and
expenditure and ensure that they are saving as much as possible. Most students
will need to go back to the Meal
Planner or the “Other”
page to readjust their expenditure so as to maximise their savings.
Once the student (teacher) is happy with the final budget page then this may be
printed and submitted for marking.
Finally, ask your students to prepare an oral report to
present to the class. Give details of your job profile, meal planner and overall
budget strategy. How long would it take you to save $20,000 for a European
holiday?
