Creating a Monthly Budget

Today we delved into the world of being an adult! To assess our understanding of using money in real-life contexts, we participated in an exciting, informative lesson on budgeting and bank accounts. Firstly, we decided on the best account to have that would give us the best annual interest, especially if we had some existing savings! 

Having a budget of £1200, we had to calculate our monthly deductions by calculating the percentage of income tax we had to pay, in addition to our monthly non-negotiables such as rent, bills and food.  With the remaining budget, we had to decide if we were going to save money, or spent it on luxuries - some of them do not come cheaply! We were tested the most when unforeseen expenses were forced upon us: a leak in the bathroom, a forgotten birthday present and broken shoes that needed repairing; therefore, we had to reassess where our money was being spent.

At the end of the lesson, when presenting our budgets, some of us found ourselves 'in the black', saving up to £126; others initially indulged a little too much, finding themselves 'in the red' and asking for an overdraft to keep up with their lavish lifestyle!