Make Your First Budget

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

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'

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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

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

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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

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

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