Budget Lesson Plans: Planning an Event

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Deciding on an Event

At the beginning of the school year, ask students to come up with ideas of places they would like to go on a class trip. Go over the list and allow students to vote on some of the options they have submitted. When you decide on one, go through the proper channels and get it approved based on the fact that the trip will be funded by the students.

Ask students to come up with a list of costs for the trip. Include any charges for transportation, food and tickets for entrance. When students come up with a sum total of expenses, the next step is for them to find a way to come up with the funds for the trip.

Inform students that they will not be able to take any of their personal money for this. They must find a way to raise the money throughout the year. Students need to come up with all costs for the trip, then decide on ways to raise money for the trip and make a separate budget for each activity. Some ways in which the students may raise the money are listed below.

  • car wash
  • gift wrapping
  • craft fairs
  • rummage sales
  • donations

These are just some of the things students can do to raise money. Whatever they do, they need to have a budget for every activity. Students should check in and report their expectations as well as the actual outcome on a weekly basis. If there has been no progress then students need to report what the plan is and when the next activity to raise the funds will be. When the funds have been raised, they should be dispersed to the proper places and what is left can be divided among the students to use as “pin money” at whatever event they choose to attend.

Not only is this a great way for students to learn how to manage a budget, but it is also a way for the class to learn to work within a group and to be responsible for their own actions. If the group does not work well together then the results will not be rewarded. However, if everyone is held accountable by assigning each member rotating tasks, then the group will work well together and the reward will be all that much more fun!

This post is part of the series: Budgeting Lesson Plans Series

This series teaches students abotu budgeting using a series of different formats to that students can learn how to take a variety of things into consideration when they are creating a budget of any type.

  1. Your Money, Your Community
  2. Budgeting Lesson: Needs and Wants
  3. Lesson on Personal Finances
  4. Plan an Event