Plan for the day: 

Show budget examples: 15 minutes

*Scavenger hunt outside*: 25 minutes 

Back in the lab to enter hunt data (and find more data): 25 minutes 

Discussion about prices and their variability : 5 min

 

Budgets:

Can be for time or money. More often, it’s money that’s budgeted.

Example 1: Monthly household budget

Example 2: Travel budget calculator

http://www.independenttraveler.com/travel-budget-calculator

Example 3: VSB budget. 

Each year, the VSB gets about $400 million from the government mostly (and a few other sources, like investments). This money is spent on Vancouver students’ educations; for example, teacher salaries, school programmes, building maintenance, and more. The budget was just announced this week and the big news is that there’s a “shortfall” of $27 million. That is, the amount the VSB needed to spend is $27 million more than what was given to them.

The VSB, by law, must therefore either find an extra $27 million OR cut spending by $27 million this year. What would you do? 

Example 4: Time budget. This is very useful because, unlike with money, everybody starts each day with the same 24 hours to work with. How you use it becomes increasingly up to you as you get older.

• Daily Tasks (7 days a week)
  • Sleep. 8 hours.
  • Hygiene. 1.5 hours.
  • Meals. 1 hour
  • Total – 10 hours
• Workweek/Weekday Tasks (5 days per week). Consider a “normal” weekday workweek
  • Work. 9 hours. This could include lunch and/or travel time break.
• How much time do you have left each work day for fun, family, and friends? How much free time are you willing to sacrifice for studies? Work? Other commitments? 
•  
• Weekly Tasks.
  • Time with friends and family. 15 hours (minimum must do).
  • Grocery shopping and cooking. 10 hours.
  • Chores. 6 hours (cleaning, random organizing, car maintenance, etc).
• Yearly Tasks.  Here we have a lot of “life maintenance” type of stuff.  I just round it up.
  • Annual and biannual checkups. 20 hours (doctor, vision, dentist)

Example 5: Lifetime budget: Plan out the various stages of your life. You wouldn’t go on a trip without a plan – so why go through life without one?

Ages 13 – 18: High School

Ages 19 – 22: Post-secondary and early-career work

Ages 23 – 30: One big backpacking trip and grow career

Ages 31 – 35: Get married? Buy condo?

Ages 36 – 45: Shift career path so it fits better with lifestyle (pets and kids?)

Ages 46 – 65: Raise family. Travel to northern Labrador.

65+: Start spending my hard-earned money and treating myself.