Money Matters • Basic Budgeting

Practice your basic budgeting skills with the help of the Money Matters overview poster and the five fundamental pillars of financial literacy.

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Everything you need to play this game

A step-by-step guide to play the game

1

Gather a child or a group of children in front of the Money Matters poster, and briefly ask them what they think of when they hear the term 'financial literacy'.

2

Then, focus on the five pillars at the bottom of the board: earn, spend, save, invest and protect. Go over the five pillars with the children and explain the pillars if necessary.

3

Afterwards, if the children feel comfortable sharing information with each other, ask the children to write down how much money they earn on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. Give them the time to also write down how they earn this money. If the children are not comfortable with sharing personal info, you can also suggest a fictional budget.

4

Then, ask the children to write down how much money they spend on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. Also give them the time to write down on what they tend to spend their money.

5

Discuss the result together with the children, and check if there is something left, which can be used for the rest of the pillars: save and/or invest! Also make sure to discuss with the children how - at any given time - they can protect the money or the valuable belongings they have.

6

Wrap-up the basic budgeting exercise with a simple question: what if you need to change one thing in your financial behaviour, what would it be? For example: spend less money on video games, or try to earn more money by doing an extra job ... Ideally, try to repeat the exercise again after one month to check if the actions points were implemented and if somethings has changed in the financial situation.

Extra game information

The Money Matters overview poster is one of the two posters of the Fundamentals of Financial Literacy toolkit, created by the Khazana Foundation and StreetSmart in 2023. The two organisations joined forces to create a new toolkit together to allow more vulnerable children to learn about the basics of financial literacy via playful, accessible educational materials.


On the Money Matters overview poster, one can find over 50 situations that are directly or indirectly linked to financial literacy. At the bottom of the poster, the five coloured circles with the icons represent the five pillars of financial literacy: 

  • Earn
  • Spend
  • Save
  • Invest
  • Protect


The basic budgeting exercise has the objective to allow children to think about their financial behaviour. The exercise can help them to visualise their earnings and spendings and how they can - by taking simple actions - can save extra money. The famous 50/30/20 rule can help you to give a basic framework for children to reflect on. The 50/30/20 rule is an easy budgeting method that can help people to manage your money effectively, simply and sustainably. The basic rule of thumb is to divide your monthly income into three spending categories: 

  1. 50% for needs
  2. 30% for wants
  3. 20% for savings or paying off debt

Variations

  • If the children feel comfortable with each other, ask them to present their best practices in money management.
  • When looking at the Money Matters overview poster, ask the children which institutions can help you to take care of your budget.
  • You can also make the budgeting exercise more practical, by giving them an amount of bottle caps before the session, and invent several things they need to spend their money on during the session (f.ex. rent a chair, buy a drink etc...)

Specific learning objectives

  • Learn about the basics of budgeting
  • Learn about the core pillars of financial literacy

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