Budgeting · Lesson Plan

Create a Budget — Lesson Plan

A full, structured lesson plan for teaching the budgeting process from start to finish — from defining what a budget is to having students construct one of their own using real income and expense scenarios.

Grades 6–10 Lesson Plan 45–60 min Member Resource

What Students Learn

Learning objectives

What a budget is and why having one is a fundamental adult financial skill
How to list income sources and calculate total monthly income
How to identify and categorize monthly expenses — needs first, then wants
How to balance a budget: what to do when expenses exceed income
How to set a savings goal and build it into a real spending plan

For Teachers

How to use this resource

This lesson plan works well as a full class period introduction to personal budgeting — it provides the structure so you don’t have to build it from scratch. Pair with the Fixed and Variable Expenses Worksheet as pre-work or as an in-class companion activity. For high school students, the First Paycheck, Real Choices lesson extends this foundation with a deeper, scenario-based approach — use this lesson plan to build the vocabulary and framework first, then move to the premium lesson for real-world application.

Member Resource