Spending Wisely 

Instructional Objectives: To teach students basic concepts in educated consumerism.

Time Required: open

Advance Preparation: You may want to download the pages first and use more material found on the websites on this page.

Materials / Resources Required: computer with internet access and possibly a projector or tv with a tvator.

Vocabulary, Concepts, Focus Questions (and responses), Generalizations, Key Points: Economic wants, goods, services, scarcity, consumers, choice and use http://ecedweb.unomaha.edu/elelearn.htm#learning2 Suggested Evidence of Student Learning for Economic Concepts page as a reference to teach these concepts and to serve as a guide for evidence of comprehension of these concepts

Procedures/Activities:  As a resource, use: 

Consumer Reports Page http://consumerreports.org/main/home.jsp .

Household Budget Management - http://dacomp.com/budget1.html  (I briefly go into this site and go over with the class the link to the Sample Budget. This serves as a basis for the planned budget they have to submit.)

The Dollar Stretcher Page- http://stretcher.com/index.cfm

Kid's Consumer Corner Thinkquest Page(This site gives a lot of tips with regards to smart buying and savings.)- http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/3643/

First, brainstorm with the class regarding techniques we use before making a purchase and write these on the board or projection device. Using the previous criteria as a basis as well as other criteria for justifying purchases such as: getting 4 quotes from different stores online, specials vs. normal price, low/no shipping charges, money back guarantee, no tax, special gifts with order, etc., give students the following Scenario: You have been given $4000 dollars for your winter semester(6 months) at school, you must spend as close as possible to $4000 dollars without going over. You are renting a small room for $100 every two weeks. Each article bought must be justified using criteria learned during this lesson. You must purchase articles in each of the following categories: clothing, entertainment, food, health, school materials (notebooks, pens, pencils, etc.) and transportation. Remember to maintain a category for rent. Keep an Excel spreadsheet checkbook of all transactions made. Log all your transactions in Word and provide at least one criteria as to why you made your purchase as well as what category that purchase belongs to. Before making your purchases, create a sample budget of how you plan to distribute your money before you actually make a purchase. Click on the wallet to view the assignment separately.

At the end of the project, students will submit the following: a planned budget with the different categories mentioned:

Example
Categories

Amount Budgeted
Rent $1,200.00
School Items $300.00
Food $1,400.00
Personal Items $200.00
Emergency $200.00
Transportation $100.00
Clothing $250.00
Health $200.00
Entertainment $150.00
Total =====> $4,000.00

an Excel checkbook with all fictitious transactions made and the final balance highlighted and bold, a running list of all their transactions in Word with their criteria next to it. Example: 

 
Description Category Criteria
1/21 Purchased a pair of sneakers at Footlocker online http://footlocker.com for $69.99. Clothing Regular price of the sneaker is $89.99.
1/26 Purchased a pack of pens at Office Depot online http://officedepot.com   for $0.89 School Materials List price is $3.71 and the price at Staples is $1.19.

     For Extra Credit: Have students create their own checks using Microsoft Word. Use the following sites to assist you while making your checks. Include the 10 parts of a check listed at the following site Parts of a check page http://lane.k12.or.us/~aallen/checkparts.html

If you want students to track their spending habits, you may want to download and copy for them a free program called AceMoney, which is a personal finance manager. Students can track your spending habits to see where all the money goes. All you have to do is set up your various accounts and then enter your bills. You can configure everything right down to the types of accounts that are available, or the categories you have to choose from when entering information regarding your spending. AceMoney can give you a report whether in graph or table form. You can have students print out their graphs or  tables.

Tips: Discuss with your students their experience (possibly have students keep a journal while working on this project) and discuss that this is the experience of a knowledgeable shopper. Note to students that entertainment should be the last category, since this deals more with a want although it is still a need.

 If you students have no idea regarding budgeting, then have students go to the following website The Center For Debt Management: Free Budget Programs http://center4debtmanagement.com/Budgets.shtml and have them download one of their free budgeting programs (or you may download it to disks and distribute to your students) so that students may have assistance creating their personal budgets.

Evaluation: Go to the EdEcWeb page for Suggested Evidence of Student Learning for Primary Economic Concepts http://ecedweb.unomaha.edu/elelearn.htm#learning2  and pick 3 concepts to have students explain. The project is based on 40 points: 5 points for the planned budget, 15 points for the Excel checkbook and 20 points for the Word list with category and criteria. You may want to give extra points to those students whose "actual purchases" closely match their planned budget. (This means that these students have almost attained that which we can almost never do.....spend what we actually planned).

 

 

Click on the bag of money to return to the Main Menu

Last modified 12/1/02 by Anthony Salcedo

TGBTG