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This lesson will teach you the theory required to fully understand the topic and will present both exercises and selftests to gauge your understanding.
Show less Show more expand_more| | 12 Theory slides |
| | 15 Exercises - Grade E - A |
| | Each lesson is meant to take 1-2 classroom sessions |
Needs vs Wants
Simple Arithmetic with Money:
Decision-Making Basics:
If I buy X, I might not afford Y)
Maya has a part-time babysitting job that pays $100 per week.
She has some regularly occurring expenses:
Maya also has savings goals:
When it comes to money and making choices about how to spend it, it is helpful to understand the difference between wants and needs.
Wants are things that we would like to have, but we can live without. Needs, on the other hand, are essential things that we require to live and be healthy. These are things that we cannot do without. We need them to survive and to participate in daily activities. Here are some examples.
| Wants | Needs |
|---|---|
| Toys and games | Food and water |
| Entertainment, such as movies or concerts | A place to live |
| Treats, such as candy or snacks | Clothing and shoes |
| Luxuries, such as a new phone or a vacation | Basic school supplies |
Sort the items into wants or needs. Remember: needs are essential, wants are nice to have!
Savings is money that is put aside instead of being spent right away so that you can use it later for emergencies or big goals. On the other hand, spending refers to using your money to buy things you need or want. In particular, planned spending is when you decide to spend money on wants, like a new game or concert tickets, and make sure to include it in your budget.
Emma gets $20 a week for her allowance. She needs to use $10 to pay for her school lunches. She also wants to spend $5 renting movies and $4 on snacks when she hangs out with her friends.
How much money does Emma have left after paying for her needs?
If Emma wants to save at least $5 each week, what can she cut from her spending?
A need is something necessary. A want is extra or fun.
Subtract her needs from her total allowance.
Focus on things she could live without.
To determine which expenses are wants, we need to recall that a want is something that is extra or fun and is not necessary. Emma's expenses are:
&School Lunches:&$10 &Movie Rentals:&$5 &Snacks:&$4 School lunches are necessary, but movie rentals and snacks are not. The expenses that are wants are movie rentals and snacks.
To find out how much money Emma has left after paying for her needs, we need to subtract her necessary expenses from her total allowance. We know that her necessary expense is $10 for school lunches. Emma's total allowance is $20. We will subtract her needs from this amount.
$20 - $10 = $10 Emma has $10 left after paying for her needs.
To find out what Emma can cut from her spending, we need to focus on things she could live without, which are her wants. We know that she wants to save at least $5 and she has $10 left after paying for her needs. Emma's wants are movie rentals and snacks.
Total Cost of Wants $5 + $4 = $9 She can cut either snacks or movie rentals — or both — to free up at least $5 for savings.
Emma wants a new backpack that costs $40. She plans to save $5 each week.
How many weeks will it take for Emma to save enough money?
Emma decides that she would also like to buy a new pair of shoes that cost $20. How many total weeks does she need to save now?
Suppose the new semester starts in one month. How much money would she need to save each week in order to have her new backpack and shoes in time for classes to start?
How many times does she need to save $5 before it adds up to $40?
Add the prices together before dividing.
Divide the total amount of money needed by the number of weeks in a month.
The backpack costs $40, and Emma saves $5 per week. To find out how many weeks it will take Emma to save enough money for the backpack, we need to divide the cost of the backpack by her weekly savings.
40/5 = 8weeks It will take Emma 8 weeks to save enough money for the backpack.
The backpack costs $40, the shoes cost $20, and Emma saves $5 per week. First, we add the prices together to find the total cost.
$40 + $20 = $60 To find the total number of weeks Emma needs to save money to buy these things, we divide the total cost by her weekly savings. $60/5 = 12weeks Emma needs to save for 12 weeks to buy both the backpack and the shoes.
The backpack and shoes together cost $60 and there are about 4 weeks until the semester starts. To determine how much Emma needs to save each week, we divide the total cost by the number of weeks.
$60/4=$15 Emma needs to save $15 each week in order to buy the backpack and shoes before school starts.
Emma wasn't going to be able to save enough money each week to buy all of the things she wanted for the new semester so she decided to help out her next door neighbor to earn the extra money. Now her weekly income includes:
With her new income, how much can Emma save each week now?
How many weeks will it take for Emma to save the $60 she needs for her new backpack and shoes?
Remember that the new semester starts in four weeks. How much extra money will Emma have at the beginning of the semester if she continues to help her neighbor after she has reached her savings goal?
Add her savings from her allowance to her income.
Divide the cost of her items by the amount saved each week.
How many weeks are left until the new semester after she's met her savings goal?
Emma's weekly income now includes $5 from her allowance, $5 for walking the dog, and $10 for mowing the lawn. To find out how much Emma can save each week now, we need to add her savings from her allowance to her new income.
$5 + $5 + $10 = $20 Emma can save $20 each week now.
Emma needs is $60 in total to buy her backpack and shoes and she can now save $20 each week. To find out how many weeks it will take her to save enough money, we divide the total cost by her new weekly savings.
Substitute values
Calculate quotient
It will take Emma 3 weeks to save the $60 she needs.
Emma saves $20 per week and has 1 week left until the semester starts after reaching her goal. Emma will have $20 extra at the beginning of the semester. 1 week* $20 = $20
Now that we've learned so much about what it means to make a budget, let's look back at Maya's situation. Remember that she has a part-time job that pays her $100 per week. She wants to make sure she uses her money wisely so that she can afford her regular expenses and meet her savings goals.
We need to know how much each of her expenses cost her on a weekly basis to help her make her budget. This is what she tells us.
| Expense | Weekly Cost |
|---|---|
| School lunch | $25 |
| Fun activities | $20 |
| Miscellaneous things | $10 |
Now let's remember her savings goals!
If we want to decide how much money can be set aside for each of her goals, we need some more information about each one. Her goals need to be more specific. Let's see what she says when we ask her for some more details.
|
The laptop I like costs $780 and I would really like to say that I bought it within a year of starting to save. |
How much money should Maya save each week for her new laptop in order to meet her goal?
How much money will Maya have saved for college by the time she starts classes in 3 years?
There are 52 weeks in a year.
How much does she save each week before she purchases the laptop? And how much does she save each week after she purchases the laptop?
Since we are setting a weekly savings goal for Maya, we need to remember that there are 52 weeks in a year. Now we will divide the total cost of the laptop by the number of weeks.
$780 ÷ 52 = $15 She needs to save $15 each week to reach her goal of $780 in 52 weeks.
First, let's determine Maya's total weekly savings. She earns $100 and has three expenses that total $55 per week.
Lunch+Fun+Miscellaneous=Total $25+$20+$10=$55 We can subtract this from her income to find the amount of money she saves. $100 - $55 = $45 per week Remember that for the first 52 weeks, $15 per week will go towards her new laptop. This means that $30 per week can be put into her college fund. $45 - $15 = $30 Let's calculate how much money she will save for college during the first year.
During the second and third years, the entire $45 will go into her college fund each week. Let's see how much she will save during those two years!
Next, let's add these numbers together to see how much money she will have saved after three years. $1 560 + $4 680 = $6 240 Maya will have saved $6 240 for college.
Let's categorize Jason's expenses.
His expenses that are wants are snacks and mobile game purchases.
From the given expenses, Jason's only need is school lunch.
School lunch= $6
Jason spends $6 on needs.
Classify each item as a need (N) or a want (W), in order.
Needs are essential things that we require to live and be healthy. Wants, on the other hand, are things that we would like to have, but we can live without them. We will analyze each of the items below to determine whether they are needs or wants
| Item | Why It Is a Need or a Want? | N or W? |
|---|---|---|
| Bus fare to get to school | We need to go to school for education, and bus fare is necessary | N |
| Streaming subscription | It is for entertainment, and we can live without it | W |
| Toothpaste | We need it to keep our teeth clean and healthy | N |
| Designer sneakers | We need shoes, but designer ones are a luxury, not essential | W |
He wants to save at least $3 each week.
To determine if Liam can save $3 each week, we need to calculate his total spending and see if his remaining money meets his savings goal. First, let's add all of his expenses to find his total weekly spending. $3 + $2 + $4 =$9 Liam gets $10 per week. If he spends $9, then he has $1 left. $10 - $9 = $1 Since he wants to save at least $3 each week, and he only has $1 left, he is not currently able to save $3 each week.
We want to know how much Liam needs to cut from his spending. We know that he already saves $1 and that he wants to save $3. The difference between these values is how much more he needs to save.
$3 - $1 = $2
He needs to cut $2 from his spending if he wants to save $3.
If Liam stops buying candy, he will save $2. His new total weekly spending will be the $3 for lunch and the $4 for gaming.
$3 + $4 = $7
He will have $10 - $7 = $3 left each week for savings.
Match the tool to how it helps with saving.
Let's match each tool with how it helps with saving. A budget is a plan for how we spend and save our money. It helps us see how much money we have, how much we need to spend, and how much we can save.
Budget → Helps plan how much to spend and save
A savings jar is a fun and visible way to save money. We can see our money growing as we add more coins and bills. This makes it easy to track our savings.
Savings jar → Stores saved money in a visible way.
A goal tracker helps us see how close we are to achieving something we want to buy. It shows us our progress and motivates us to keep saving.
Goal tracker → Shows progress toward something you want to buy.
Ella earns $25 each week and spends:
How much money does she have left for savings?
Ella earns $25 each week. To find out how much money she has left for savings, we first need to calculate her total weekly expenses. Let's add up the amounts she spends on school lunches, snacks, and entertainment. $12 + $5 + $3 = $20 Ella's total weekly expenses are $20. We can subtract this amount from her total earnings to find out how much she has left for savings. $25 - $20 = $5 Ella has $5 left for savings.