Budgeting

In working with a church youth group who needed to fundraise and or save for an upcoming trip we helped them see the importance of budgeting.  They all had part time jobs and 10 months to save for the cost of their trip.  We first figured out how much money was needed to set aside each paycheck to cover the initial cost of the trip and for their spending money while at the conference.  After figuring out how much will be required to save out of each paycheck, they then brainstormed other ways to acquire the money needed.  We suggested fundraising, asking for money at Christmas and birthday's instead of gifts, giving up the cost of their daily soda or coffee or taking on a second job.  By the end of this exercise, the kids had a good idea of what they needed to do to be able to pay for this trip.  For those kids who first thought they would not be able to attend, they were excited about having a plan and realized with some work that they also could afford to go.