Budget Trade-Offs—A Penny Here and a Penny There

Students participate in an activity that illustrates that budgeting is really an allocation problem. They must decide how to allocate limited income among many alternatives, which requires trade-offs. For the activity, students are given pennies representing monthly personal income to allocate for their living expenses—to purchase goods and services for housing, food, transportation, and so on.

•  Lesson (pdf)

The Making Personal Finance Decisions curriculum teaches valuable personal finance lessons grounded in economic theory. The curriculum is divided into 10 themed units, with each unit containing two lessons. The twenty individual lessons employ a variety of teaching strategies designed to engage students in the learning process and equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary to make informed personal finance decisions. Budget Trade-Offs—A Penny Here and a Penny There is lesson 5B of Unit Five: Budgeting.

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Education Level: 9-12
Subjects: Economics Personal Finance
Concepts: Budget/Money Management Decision-Making Opportunity Cost Saving Spending
Resource Types: Lesson
Languages: English
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