Monday, April 17, 2017

Budgeting sesison for our local high school students ~ Guest blog by CEF's Ms Kim Chi

I was very excited to talk about budgeting at CEF on Sunday with grade 12 students who may be freshmen this coming academic year. We wanted to help them recognise how important budgeting is so they can do their own budgets. They were serious about learning budgeting as well as confident enough to ask questions and share their thoughts.

It is essential for these young adults to learn about this subject because their families along with CEF will pay all their expenses while they are at university and living away from home in shared accommodation. They will need help with accommodation, food and other living costs and some will need to cover some of their extra tuition too, so these young adults have to learn to choose foods and personal items carefully always considering the cost or they won’t have enough money for their studies and living costs.

The students worked in two groups on their anticipated monthly costs and then presented their budgets. They now know what it costs to go to university and that they have to talk to their parents about how they are going to make their money last.

I was thrilled with the outcome of the workshop as the students not only learned about budgeting, but also know that they have to work really hard at school, understand their challenges and poor family circumstances and think about finding a part time job to help them cover all their costs.

What they learnt on Sunday will help them in the immediate future and when they are at university this coming academic year.