Dollars & Sense: Watch Your Expense!
Dollars & Sense is a budgeting game for middle and high school students. Students select a lifestyle and budget for expenses and unexpected events.
Materials
Related Resources
To reinforce the concepts found in the game, check out these other Federal Reserve resources:
Meet Joe is a budgeting video from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s PSAs in the Classroom video series. This video covers the concept of budgeting and encourages students to plan before they spend, rather than spend before they plan. This video is a perfect pairing to the “Dollars & Sense” classroom activity.
Invest in What’s Next: Life After High School is an online mini-course developed by the Federal Reserve Banks of Richmond and San Francisco to help students navigate their first major financial decision: what path to pursue after high school. The course encourages students to explore multiple post-secondary education paths and job options and to think about how investing in their knowledge and skills may contribute to their future well-being.
Budgeting Basics is a lesson plan from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta teaches students how to budget and underscores the importance of building an emergency fund.
Budgeting 101 is an online course for teachers and students. Students are given the hands-on opportunity to create budgets for fictional "Regan" during her sophomore year in nursing school, and, later, as a recent graduate with an apartment and a new car. This online course utilizes ECON Lowdown a Learning Management System brought to you by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Why Budget is an infographic from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta that helps students understand how a budget will put them on a path to meet their financial goals.
Standards Correlations
The content of Dollars and Sense, in conjunction with other instruction, can be used to address the following standards:
Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics
- Content Standard 1: Scarcity
- Content Standard 2: Decision Making
- Content Standard 12: Interest Rates
- Content Standard 13: Income
CEE National Standards for Financial Literacy
- Standard I: Earning Income
- Standard II: Buying Goods and Services
- Standard III: Saving
- Standard IV: Using Credit