In adult life there are many practical questions that require problem solving skills and a little math. This lesson has students figure out the benefits and costs to joining a shopping club like Sam’s Club. Guide your students through a real life case study that requires lots of critical thinking, a little math and the chance to use Excel!

Time Frame: 1 block + homework or 2 blocks

Objective

• 2.6 Demonstrate management of financial resources to meet the goals of individuals and families across the life span.

Set

• How many of your families shop at wholesale clubs?
• Do you think wholesale clubs save your family money?
• How much does it cost to join a club?

Materials

• Computer Lab
• SMART Board is helpful for instruction & teaching Excel

Background for Teachers:

• The Smith Case Study is complete in itself with prices already figured out and a simple assumption that each item was purchased 12 times a year.
• The Bradford Case Study is more complex in that students need to look through the receipts of the family from the past year and create a spreadsheet. They need to actually look up the prices from the internet since they are not given in the worksheet.

Instruction

• Depending how bright your students are you can give a lot or a little instruction. I like to have the whole class come up with the generic steps to solving this problem as a group before I send students off in pairs to actually solve the problem.
  • Problem Solving Steps
    1. Figure out what the Smith’s purchase at Sam’s (for the purpose of the analysis only choose items they purchase regularly)
    2. Figure out the quantities of the each item & the unit price (go to SamsClub.com to find the items)
    3. Figure out the price of a similar item as Stop & Shop (go to Peapod.com to find items/prices/qty)
    4. Create a spreadsheet (there is one below you can give them as a template)
    5. Get every item in to price per unit subtract the difference (Stop & Shop Unit Price – Sam’s Club Unit Price)
    6. Add the total savings
    7. Multiply by the number of times each item was purchased over the year

• Demonstrate how to add and multiply in Excel (Again I suggest using a SMART Board)

Activities

• Case Study: The Smiths   or  harder Case Study: The Bradfords

Extensions

• An additional activity you can have your students do is a shopping test where they choose 20 items and “shop” (compare prices/qty) at three different stores.
  

• Is Sams Club Worth It -Smith Case Study (Word)
• Is Sams Club Worth it Analysis- Smith Case Study (Excel)
• Is Sams Club Worth It -Bradford Case (Word)
• Is Sams Club Worth it- Bradford Case (Excel)
• Sam’s Club Receipts-Bradford Case Study (Pdf)

Links

• Wholesale Club Shopping
• Peapod.com
• Samsclub.com
  

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This lesson follows a case study of a busy couple that is challenged by one of their coworker’s to figure out whether it is cheaper to make sandwiches or buy them from Subway. Students get a chance to apply their critical thinking & problem solving skills to a practical problem as well as get a chance to learn basic math in Excel.

Time Frame: 1 block

Set

• Ask your students how much lunch costs them everyday. Is there a price difference between brown bag lunches and buying it from the cafeteria?

Materials

• Computer Lab
• Shop for Back to School + Spend $50, Get Free Shipping on Select Items at Target.com

Instruction

• If you have a smart board you’ll definately want to set it up to walk through how to use Excel to do math. Don’t know how to use Excel? Click here for a tutorial – it’s easy!
• Read through the case/problem with the class.
• Depending on the level and brightness of your class you may want to walk through the basic problem solving steps asked in question #1 on the Subway Economics Worksheet.
• You may also want to assign students a partner. (optional)

Activities

• Students will work on completing the worksheet using the internet and Excel.

Extensions

• You can also have your students figure out if it is cheaper to eat at your school’s cafeteria or make the equivalent product at home and bring it for lunch.

Closure

• What did you find was cheaper for this couple? Were you surprised? Why or why not?
• Does anyone work at Subway? How does Subway keep its costs down?
• Is eating out always economical?
• What other factors are we not considering in this price comparison? (Opportunity Cost of Time)

Attachments

• Subway Economics Worksheet (Word)
• Subway Economics Answer Key (Word)
• Subway Math (Excel)

Websites

• Subway Online Ordering
• Peapod
• Netgrocer.com
• Target's Printable Grocery Coupons

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Teaching personal finance can be a challenge especially if you have all the old, outdated resources that emphasis doing just about all your budgeting, check writing, goal setting, etc on paper. Students start the eye roll as soon as you hand out the “how to write a check” worksheet. Granted, they should know how to fill out a check even if they only use their debit card now. The world is changing and we want students to be turned on to being good financial stewards. This means we need to help them find technologically advanced ways to keep track of their spending, budget, and set goals. One of my personal favorite free personal finance websites is Mint.com.  Whether you can require it or not is your discretion but I definitely spend some time introducing students to sites like this that make all the stuff we do on paper so much easier and practical for this technologically savvy generation.

What the site does:

• Connects to your checking account, credit card account, etc.
  • Most students these days have their own check account and/or savings account. I believe as time progresses that more and more students will have electronic banking. Depending on your situation you may or may not feel comfortable allowing your students to use Mint.com for a class assignment. I usually give my students the option to keep track of spending in a journal or via one of the many online budgeting programs. You can also have their parent’s sign an authorization form so they are aware what their student is doing. This is also a good time to remind students to check the security of websites that they are giving their financial information to.
• Allows you to categorize expenses
  • Every transaction is listed and it categorizes most of the major retail stores, restaurants, etc. for you. The rest like checks, etc you can categorize yourself. You can be as specific or generic as you want. For example you can have a eating out category or an entertainment category.
• Helps you set monthly spending goals & long term goals
  • You can set goals for your spending and have an email alert you if you go over your spending goal. With all the smartphones available this information is instantaneous and helpful in making financial decisions even in the store!
  • It also shows you the progress towards long term goals such as saving for college or a car. You can allocate money to that “category” and track your progress visually.
• Recommends products to help you meet your goals.
  • This is how Mint.com stays free – it sells advertising of financial services and products to companies. Then you can see in the recommendations tab things like credit cards that offer cash back, etc. I like to teach students about financial advertising as well. It is important to look into any financial offer, read the fine print, and investigate alternatives.

Video

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Time Frame: 1 block + 10 minutes a class for one month to write down spending

Objective: Identify financial goals and develop budgeting strategies.

Set

• Write the word “BUDGET” on the board and ask the class to create a web diagram around the word.
• How many of you know that your parents keep a budget? Explain how they budget.
• Why is keeping a budget important?

Materials

• The new word that the FDIC education program likes teachers to use is spending plan instead of budget. I like to talk about both and ask the students what the difference is.

Instructions

• Start from scratch with the class making a budget.
• Tape 10 envelopes on the board so you can put money in them.
• Explain to the class that you’re going to start budgeting based on the $1500 pay check you just got.
• Take $1500 in play money and decide what envelop categories you should create and how much money you should put in each envelope. Have the class help you. Remember that you need to know your expenses or at least an estimate to know how much money should go in the envelope.
• Now that you have allocated your paycheck to different envelopes, what happens when you spend more than is in that envelope? You can transfer money between envelopes but you should be careful not to get into debt.
• What about large purchases? Say you need to buy a new winter jacket in the fall. Start saving for it now by taking the total price/ # of months until you will purchase it = the $ you need to save each month.
• What happens when you get your phone bill? Take the money out of the envelope and pay the bill. You will re-fund the envelope your next pay check.
• Discuss how to do this practically using an index card or keeping track in a spread sheet. There are also electronic envelope budgets available – see websites below.

Activity

• Have students create their own budget for what they currently make/spend. The “Setting up Budget” worksheet should help them get started.
• Every class have your students keep track of what they spend in the “blank my spending log.”
• After the students have kept track of their spending, have them write up their own envelope budget. You can give them actual envelopes and have them write the category and amount funded on the outside of the envelope.

Closure

• People often complain about budgeting. What do you think makes it so hard?
• How do you think  you could make budgeting a life style?
• What are the steps to making a budget?

Evaluation

• Budget Rubric (Word)

Attachments

• Setting up a Budget (Word)
• Blank My Spending Log (Excel)
• Budgeting Practice(Excel)

Websites

• Mvelopes.com - online envelop budgeting that is linked to your bank accounts

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Time Frame: 1.5 hour block

Objective

• Students will read a non-fiction self-help book and write a book report summarizing the book and applying the information to their lives.

Set

• This project is a part of a senior life skills class. I explain to the students that after high school it is really up to them to engage in learning on their own. No one is going to spoon feed them. One of the ways adults learn is by reading books on subjects that they need to work on or learn more about.
• I always warn my students that self help books a lot of times are written by religious authors that may have opinions different than yours. If you disagree with what what your authors say please explain that in your book report.

Materials

• Go over the Life Long Learning Book Report Directions & allow students to either choose a book from the book list that you provide or get their book approved by you. I let my students choose from a collection of books that I have and if they are not satisfied with my selection they have to purchase a book from the book list or one that I approve that is a minimum of 200 pages.
• Depending on your students you can assign the project and have them complete it entirely on their own or you can do parts of it in class. I happen to have a group of students that were frank with me and said they pretty much wouldn’t do it if I just assigned it. Although I hate the fact that some students refuse to do homework, I knew that I was basically setting them up to fail if I didn’t rethink the assignment. So I made a deal with them that we would have reading day every Friday for a quarter so they c0uld get most of it done in class. The incentive of class time is that if they were productive with their class time they won’t have to do any of it at home.

Activities

• Read the book in class and have students fill out the Reading Comprehension Chart – the chart is in the Life Long Learning Book Report Document under “Attachments.”
• Pass out one sticky note per student. Have students find at least one interesting idea or quote that they read to share with the class at the end of the reading day.

• At the end of each reading day save about 15 minutes at the end of class to have each student talk about a main idea or quote that they found interesting from their reading.

Assessment

• Life Long Learning Book Report Rubric (Word)

Attachments

• Life Long Learning Book Report (Word)
• Life Long Learning Book List (Excel)

Websites

• Amazon.com : Usually a cheaper place to buy self help books than a physical bookstore
• Half.com : A good place to find cheap used books
  

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Johnny Money: An Entrepreneurial Experience

Teach your students about entrepreneurship through a free online interactive game sponsored by the Young Entrepreneur Foundation. The game allows students to start a fictitious retail store. After set up is complete students make business decisions on advertising, donating to local charities, managing their employees, operating costs, inventory control, paying bills, taking out loans, etc. There are also surprises thrown their way such as on the job injuries and natural disasters. Throughout the game students will become familiar with monthly reports such as a balance sheet and cash flow statements. The game is scored and students compete against each other.

Teachers can check in on student’s progress through class reports and base class discussion off monthly reports. The teacher’s manual offers a list of discussion topics to coincide with the game so students can further connect the game to the real world experiences of a business man or woman. Some sample questions include, “if offered fewer working hours in order to keep your job, would you accept?” “Did anything occur during the simulation that you could not control? How did you decide to move forward during those events?”

Websites:

• Johnny Money
• Start-Up Junkies: If you have time in class I highly suggest showing an episode or two of this show produced by Mojo. Hulu.com allows you to watch full episodes for free. As the name implies the show follows a start up company through the beginnings of business and explores topics like venture capitalism, marketing strategies, sales strategies, public relations, etc.
• Dog and Pony: Hulu.com also airs free episodes of  BNET’s interviews with entrepreneurs. They are short clips all under 10 minutes perfect for a lesson introduction or closing to a class.

Similar Lesson Plans:

• Entrepreneurship

Similar Products:

• Go Venture Educational Games & Simulations

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High School Financial Literacy Curriculum

• NEFE High School Financial Planning Program

• Junior Achievement: A place where students can find out information on choosing a college, learning about planning a business, finding a career, planning finances, and paying for college. The center is packed full of financial calculators, worksheets, glossaries, articles, etc.

Middle School Financial Literacy Curriculum

• Junior Achievement: A place where students can find out information on choosing a college, learning about planning a business, finding a career, planning finances, and paying for college. The center is packed full of financial calculators, worksheets, glossaries, articles, etc.

Financial Simulators

• Personal Finance Simulator: type in important information about your current or future income and the simulator will tell you if your income exceeds your expenses. It is pretty thorough asking for entries on student loans, credit cards, taxes, social security, savings, house expenses, car expenses, and salary.

Financial Games

• The Stock Market Game: This is an online game where students are given a hypothetical $100,000 to invest in the stock market. Students compete against other students via an online program that allows students to buy and sell stocks according to their price on wall street. Students compete against teams from their state or region. Some states offer prizes to the students who have the most money in their portfolio at the end of the semester.

• Real Game: The game’s highly-interactive exercises are designed to identify connections between school subjects and work roles. Your students will have fun as they learn about adult life roles in the context of their own career and educational planning. The game can now be played online but can also be purchased as a CD. There are separate games for grades 7-8, 9-10, and 11-12.
  

Financial Literacy Awards

• National Financial Literacy Challenge: “The President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy recently launched the National Financial Literacy Challenge in the same spirit as the President’s Physical Fitness Challenge – a fun approach to personal growth and competition. The Challenge is a fun activity that motivates students to become educated about personal money management with recognition and prizes for top performers.The Challenge is free and will test the financial literacy levels of America’s high school students, ages 13-18. The challenge is open to high school classrooms as well as after-school non-profit community organizations.”

Helpful Educator Websites

• Practical Money Skills.com: “With a diverse palette of resources – free lesson plans, profiles of inspiring teachers, discussion of relevant economic topics, and more – Practical Money Skills for Life hopes to empower educators, enable student learning, and ultimately support the financial literacy necessary for success today.”

• Jump Start Coalition for Personal Finance: “Jump$tart is a national coalition of organizations dedicated to improving the financial literacy of kindergarten through college-age youth by providing advocacy, research, standards and educational resources.” There are lots of free resources and printouts.
  

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