Girl Scout Cadette Activities to Earn the Budgeting Badge
Budgeting is the most basic and most important tool in anyone's financial toolbox. Girl Scout Cadettes can earn the Budgeting Badge with activities from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Badge Objectives:
- Practice budgeting for your values.
- Learn to track your spending.
- Find out about ways to save money.
- Explore different ways to give.
- Create a budget that focuses on your values.
Activity Objectives include Badge Objectives 1, 2, and 5 plus the following:
- Demonstrate the use of a budget
- Define and give examples of spending
- Define saving
- Define and give examples of opportunity cost
Budgeting 101 Online Module
Go to the "Budgeting 101" Online Module
Concepts: budget, income, opportunity cost, spending, saving
Covers badge objectives 1, 2, 5, and activity objectives 1, 2, 3, 4
Budgeting is the most basic and most important tool in anyone's financial toolbox. With this online program, you are given the hands-on opportunity to create budgets for fictional "Regan" during her sophomore year in nursing school, and, later, as a recent graduate with an apartment and a new car. Using either Microsoft® Excel or Google Docs, download our budgeting tool with space for your own budget, as well as the examples created by establishing Regan's budget.
Growing Money – Compound Interest Video
Watch the "Growing Money – Compound Interest" Video
Download the discussion questions (pdf)
Concepts: saving, compound interest
Covers badge objective 3 and activity objectives 3, 4
Compound interest has magical powers. Not only does the saver receive free money in the form of interest from the bank for keeping an account, but if the saver allows that interest to remain in the account, more interest is paid on the interest already earned. That’s free money on free money! Not only that, but the longer the saver allows the money to remain in the account, the faster the savings grows. This video shows how compound interest works to build your saving.
Spending and Saving Tracker
Download the "Spending and Saving Tracker" (pdf)
Concepts: saving, spending, budgeting
Covers badge objectives 2, 5
This simple spending and saving tracker is small enough to carry so that every expenditure can be quickly recorded. Girls track where the money goes for a week to see how best to build a budget and perhaps see where money could be saved.
Cash the Check and Track the Dough Lesson
Download the "Cash the Check and Track the Dough" Lesson (pdf)
Download the "Cash the Check and Track the Dough" PowerPoint (pptx)
Concepts: bank account register, checking account, overdraft, direct deposit, online banking
Covers badge objective 2 and activity objective 2
This leader-led lesson has the girls participate in an activity to learn about checking accounts, savings accounts and check-cashing services. The girls learn the components of a check, and they organize and enter information into an account register for a fictitious person in order to determine the person's balance. The girls learn why maintaining account records is important. The girls balance a monthly account statement.
Your Budget Plan Lesson
Download the "Your Budget Plan" Lesson (pdf)
Download the "Your Budget Plan" PowerPoint (pptx)
Concepts: budget, expenses, fixed expenses, periodic expenses, variable expenses
Covers badge objective 2 and activity objectives 2, 3
Girls work in pairs to participate in a "Track Star" game that illustrates positive and negative spending behaviors. Each pair of girls analyzes the "Track Star" results, identifies effective and ineffective budgeting behaviors, and generates a list of budgeting principles.
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