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What’s Your Spending Story?

Lesson Plan

Spending Story Lesson Plan

Students will track and categorize their real-life spending over a week and analyze patterns to understand budgeting basics and set informed saving goals.

This lesson builds foundational money management skills by connecting students’ everyday spending to budgeting concepts, promoting responsible financial behavior early on.

Audience

9th Grade

Time

45 minutes

Approach

Hands-on tracking and group discussion.

Materials

Prep

Prepare Materials

10 minutes

Step 1

Warm-Up

10 minutes

  • Ask students to brainstorm common expenses they incur in a week (e.g., food, transport, entertainment).
  • Display the My Week of Spending Slides to introduce spending categories and examples.
  • Invite a few students to share recent purchases aloud to connect personal experience to categories.

Step 2

Main Activity

25 minutes

  • Distribute the Spending Log & Reflection to each student.
  • Instruct students to record every expense from the past week or estimate based on memory/receipts.
  • Have students total amounts per category and note which category they spent the most in.
  • Circulate to answer questions and prompt deeper thinking (e.g., "Why did you spend more on this category?").

Step 3

Reflection & Discussion

10 minutes

  • Facilitate a class discussion: What spending habit surprised you the most?
  • Ask volunteers to share one insight and one category they’d like to reduce spending in.
  • Guide students to set one short-term saving goal based on their spending log.
  • Collect or have students save their worksheets for future reference and goal tracking.
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Slide Deck

My Week of Spending

Track, categorize, and analyze your real-life expenses to build smart budgeting habits.

Welcome, everyone! Today we’ll explore how we spend money every week and why it matters for budgeting. Use this slide deck to guide our brainstorming and get ready to fill out your Spending Log.

What Is Spending?

Spending is the act of using money to purchase goods and services. Every purchase—big or small—reflects a choice you make with your money.

Explain that ‘spending’ simply means using money to buy things or services. Emphasize that every small purchase—like a snack or ride—counts.

Common Spending Categories

  • Food & Snacks
  • Transportation & Travel
  • Entertainment & Leisure
  • Personal & Hygiene Products
  • Other (Clothing, Gifts, Misc.)

Review each category. Ask students to shout out examples they’ve spent on in the past week.

Brainstorm: Your Weekly Expenses

Quietly list as many expenses as you can remember from the past week. Consider all categories: what did you buy each day?

Give students 2–3 minutes to think and jot down. Then invite volunteers to share one or two items.

Sample Weekly Expenses

  • Food & Snacks: $15 (lunch), $5 (coffee)
  • Transportation: $3 × 2 bus rides = $6
  • Entertainment: $10 movie ticket
  • Personal Care: $8 shampoo
  • Miscellaneous: $7 gift for friend

Use this example to demonstrate how to categorize and total. Point out that some purchases could fit more than one category—clarify choices.

How to Use Your Spending Log

  1. Record each expense: date, item, amount, category
  2. Total amounts for each category
  3. Identify which category has the highest spending
  4. Reflect on why you spent most there

Walk through each step clearly. Confirm students know how to label date, item, amount, and category on their worksheet.

Let’s Get Started!

Grab your Spending Log & Reflection worksheet and begin recording your expenses from the past week.

Distribute the worksheets now and set a 25-minute timer. Circulate to support and ask probing questions.

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Worksheet

Spending Log & Reflection

Part 1: My Weekly Spending Log

Record each expense from the past week. Include the date, item, amount, and category.

DateItem PurchasedAmount ($)Category

Part 2: Category Totals

Calculate the total spending for each category below.

  • Food & Snacks: $ ______

  • Transportation & Travel: $ ______

  • Entertainment & Leisure: $ ______

  • Personal & Hygiene Products: $ ______

  • Other (Clothing, Gifts, Misc.): $ ______

Reflection Questions

  1. Which spending category had the highest total? Explain why you think you spent the most there.










  2. What spending habit surprised you the most this week?




  3. Identify one category you’d like to reduce spending in, and describe a specific action you can take to cut costs.





  4. Set one short-term savings goal based on your spending log. How will you track your progress toward this goal?





  5. How can tracking your expenses help you make better budgeting decisions in the future?




Copy and keep this worksheet for future reference and to monitor your progress toward smarter spending and saving!

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What’s Your Spending Story? • Lenny Learning