Who Needs Money?

This lesson will provide students with a better understanding of the various forms of money, the functions of money in a market
economy and some of their decisions about how to use money.  It also introduces the process of writing a
check.

Students keep a spending diary for one week.  They then complete an activity page to review
their spending habits and determine how they can save some of their resources
to achieve their longer term financial goals.

Complete this activity by keeping
a spending diary for one week.  Keep
track of all of the money you spend – at school, after school, and over the
weekend.  Keep your spending diary on a
sheet of paper with the following outline. 
If you purchase many items during the week, you may need more than one
page.  Look at your spending for that
day.  For each item, mark an “X” in
column #2 if you could have forgone the item. 
In column #3, for each item that was a planned or expected expense put a
“P.”  For each item that was an unplanned
or an impulse purchase, put a “U.”

At the end of the seven days,
total the spending.  If you had only had
75 percent of the money you spent, determine what you would have gone
without.  Mark those items with an “X” in
column #4.  Multiply the amount you saved
on the items marked in column #4 by 52 weeks. 
What can you purchase today if you had saved that amount each week during
the past year?