Milestone map
Milestone map
3 milestones
List every income source and every expense category
1 week
A budget starts with an honest inventory of what comes in and what goes out. List all the money you receive in a typical month — allowance, part-time pay, gifts — and all the categories you spend money on, even small ones. Nothing should be estimated from memory; look at actual receipts, bank records, or ask a parent for the amounts. An incomplete list produces a budget that does not reflect reality.
Proof required
Share your income and expense list: two columns showing every income source with its monthly amount, and every spending category with a realistic monthly estimate. A handwritten list, a spreadsheet, or a photo of a notebook all count. Accepted verifiers: peers, teachers, or parents.
What gets checked
- Income side lists every source with a specific monthly amount — 'some babysitting' is not a usable entry; '£20/week babysitting = £80/month' is
- Expense side includes at least 5 categories and covers both fixed costs (bus pass, phone top-up) and variable costs (food, entertainment) — a list of 2–3 categories is missing most of the picture
- Numbers are from real records or parental confirmation, not rough guesses — at least one entry notes its source (bank statement, receipt, parent estimate)
Common mistakes
- Listing only the obvious categories and omitting small regular spending (coffee, app subscriptions, charity donations) — these add up and derail budgets built without them
- Using round estimates for everything without checking any real records — budgets built on guesses reveal nothing and mislead
- Listing income as higher than it actually is and expenses lower — a flattering budget is useless; an honest one is useful
Resources
Foundationstart here
Depthgo deeper
What a verifier looks for
- K12 outcome — accepted verifiers: peers, teachers, or parents
- Count the expense categories — fewer than 5 usually means categories are missing; ask the student about specific spending they might have overlooked (transport, apps, snacks)
- Ask the student how they got the numbers for at least two entries — the answer should reference a real record (statement, receipt, parent estimate), not 'I guessed'
Build a one-month budget and track it live
4–5 weeks (1 calendar month of tracking)
Take the income and expense list from M1 and turn it into a budget for one real calendar month: plan how much you intend to spend in each category, then track what you actually spend throughout the month as it happens. The goal is not to perfectly meet every target — it is to discover where your plan and reality diverge, and why. Week-by-week tracking, not end-of-month reconstruction, is the proof standard.
Proof required
Share your budget for one month: a side-by-side comparison of planned vs. actual amounts for each category, with weekly tracking entries showing progress through the month. A spreadsheet or notebook showing dated weekly updates is the expected format. Accepted verifiers: peers, teachers, or parents.
What gets checked
- Budget has a planned amount and an actual amount for each category — a list of actuals without a plan is spending tracking, not budgeting
- Weekly entries have dates spanning the full month — a single end-of-month entry is not live tracking, it is reconstruction
- At least one category where actual spending exceeded the plan is acknowledged — a perfect-adherence budget is suspicious for a first attempt
Common mistakes
- Building a budget that is too tight to follow — setting every category to the minimum possible creates a plan designed to fail
- Tracking only for the first week and abandoning the log — the insight comes from the full month, not the easy start
- Adjusting the planned amounts retrospectively to match actuals — the plan should be fixed at the start of the month; the value is in the gap between plan and reality
Resources
Foundationstart here
Depthgo deeper
What a verifier looks for
- K12 outcome — accepted verifiers: peers, teachers, or parents
- Check that planned amounts were set before the month began — if planned and actual amounts are identical for every category, the plan was likely set after the fact
- Ask the student which category surprised them most — a student who tracked honestly should be able to name one area where actual spending differed significantly from the plan
Reflect and set one change for next month
1 week
A budget only improves when you learn from it. Review your planned vs. actual results for the month and identify the single most important change you will make next month. The change should be specific and actionable — not 'spend less on eating out' but 'bring lunch three times per week instead of buying it.' A concrete, testable commitment is the proof standard for this milestone.
Proof required
Share a short written reflection (at least 4 sentences) covering: one category where you overspent and why, one category where you underspent, and one specific change you commit to making in your next month's budget. Accepted verifiers: peers, teachers, or parents.
What gets checked
- Reflection identifies a specific category with a named reason for overspending — 'I spent too much' is not a reflection; 'I went over on snacks because I didn't pack food before school on Tuesdays and Thursdays' is
- The committed change is specific enough to be checkable next month — 'spend less' is not a commitment; 'cut entertainment to £15 by cancelling one subscription' is
- Reflection acknowledges at least one thing that went well — honest reflection includes both the gaps and the wins
Common mistakes
- Writing a vague reflection that could apply to anyone's budget — the reflection must reference specific numbers and categories from the student's own M2 tracker
- Setting a committed change that repeats the original planned amount unchanged — a reflection that produces no change learned nothing from the month
- Identifying what went wrong without naming a cause — 'I overspent on food' without 'because I stopped meal planning after week 2' cannot inform a real change
Resources
Foundationstart here
What a verifier looks for
- K12 outcome — accepted verifiers: peers, teachers, or parents
- The committed change must be specific and testable: ask the student how you would know next month whether they followed through — if they cannot answer, the commitment is not specific enough
- Cross-reference the reflection against the M2 tracker: the category named as the overspend should match a real gap in the planned vs. actual column