Holiday Budget Worksheet

Teaching · Budgeting

A printable holiday spending plan that counts everything — not just the gifts. Students list every person they are buying for, commit to a total, and only then discover the twenty-three other things the season charges them for. Works for any tradition, or none. Pairs with the budgeting lessons. Grades 6–12 and adult ed.

Grades 6–12 & adult Printable · no tech Free sample Full pack for members

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List B of the holiday spending plan: a checklist of twenty-three costs grouped under getting it to them, added at the register, people you did not count as people, the season itself, and after it is over, each with a tick box and a blank to write an amount.

How It Works

One class period, and one surprise

Almost everyone plans the season by writing down who they are buying for. That list is real, and it is not the cost. This pack is built so students find that out the hard way — in the right order.

List A — the people

Every person they are buying for, and roughly what they would spend. They add it up and write the total in pen. Against the cap you set, most students find they have room to spare.

List B — everything else

Handed out only once List A is finished. Twenty-three prompts across five groups: wrapping and postage, what gets added at the register, the people they did not count as people, the season itself, and what arrives after it is over.

The cut

Both lists against one cap. Most students are over. There are exactly three ways back — fewer people, less per person, or less on List B — and they have to name the one they pulled.

What’s Inside

Thirteen pages, ready to print

A teacher page for running it, including the one rule that makes the lesson work
The two-lists concept page
List A — twelve rows, a spending-cap box and a commit-in-pen total
List B — twenty-three prompted costs across five groups
The add-it-up sheet, both lists against one cap
The cut, with all three levers and room to work
A two-page worked example: one student’s plan, then the same student’s cut
An after-the-season tracker for plan against actual
Four reflection questions
Teacher pages on what to grade, what not to grade, and five debrief prompts
A low-ink version at identical pagination

List B, the checklist of costs beyond the gifts. — List B

List A, a twelve-row table of recipients with a spending cap box and a STOP HERE banner. — List A

The cut page with three lever cards and writing lines. — The cut

The worked example showing one student’s gift list and other costs against a fixed cap. — Worked example

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Free sample — the whole lesson in five pages

Not an extract: the complete arc, with a six-line List B instead of twenty-three. The two-lists page, List A, a short List B and the add-it-up sheet — enough to run the lesson this week and see whether it lands with your class. Create a free Money Instructor account to download; already a member, just log in.

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The complete pack

All thirteen pages — the full twenty-three-prompt List B, the cut, the two-page worked example, the after-the-season tracker, the reflection page and both teacher pages — plus a low-ink version at identical pagination. Free and logged-out visitors are prompted to create an account or upgrade.

Full Pack — Color (PDF) Full Pack — Low-Ink (PDF)

Who It’s For

Built to be adapted

Middle school

Set a cap of $50, cap the list at five names, keep it to whole dollars and skip the sales-tax line entirely.

High school

Run it as printed. Add the sales-tax line and require the second-order check on the cut page.

Adult education

Runs unchanged, and List B usually lands harder. Raise the cap and use the after-the-season tracker as the main assessment.

If it should not be personal

A pairs version uses an invented person with the same recipients and the same cap. The lesson is identical and nobody writes anything about their own family.

Pairs With

The other half of seasonal spending

This pack is about counting what a season costs. It deliberately does not teach price comparison, coupons, bulk buying or student discounts — those already have a home in the free Back-to-School Shopping on a Budget lesson, which is the same idea pointed at getting each item cheaper.

Run them together and students get both halves: what the whole thing actually costs, and how to pay less for each piece of it. For the year-round version, the ten-unit financial literacy curriculum opens with budgeting and a first paycheck.

The two lists page, explaining the list of people almost everyone writes and the list of other costs almost nobody writes.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Which holiday is this for?

Any of them, or none. No sheet names a specific holiday anywhere — not in a heading, a prompt, a blank or the worked example. It says “the season,” so it works for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Eid, Diwali, a cluster of December birthdays or a secular winter break, without singling any of them out in front of a class.

Do students have to write down what their family actually has?

No, and that is deliberate. The spending cap is given — you write one number on the board and every student uses it. Nothing on any sheet asks for real income, real savings or what a family can afford. Some of your students have very little to spend and some have nothing, and you will not always know which; the teacher page says so plainly and offers a pairs version that plans for an invented person instead.

What is the one rule for running it?

Hand out List A and List B separately. Students have to finish List A and write their total down before they see List B — if they read List B first they simply plan for it, and nothing surprising happens, which is the whole lesson. The teacher page gives three ways to hold the order, including projecting List B and never printing it for them at all.

What if a student is already under the cap?

Some will be, and that is a real result. The cut page tells them to write their total and say so, then asks them to do the thinking anyway: if the cap were halved tomorrow, which of the three levers would they pull first, and why that one?

Does it use real prices, shops or brands?

No. Every amount is invented for the worked example, and no retailer, brand or product is named. Nothing in the pack can go out of date, so it works in any year.

How is it graded?

On completeness and reasoning, never on the amounts. There is no correct amount to spend on a parent, and a student who writes small numbers is not doing worse work than one who writes large ones. The teacher page says exactly that, and gives four things worth marking plus five debrief prompts.

Is there a low-ink version?

Yes, and it paginates identically to the color version, so a class can use both at once without the page numbers drifting. It is a measured 20% lighter on every page.

Ready to Run It?

Teach it before the season, not after

One class period, no tech, and a finding students remember: the gift list is not the cost.

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