English: My College Budget

Going to college can be a new and sometimes frightening experience for students. It is an important time to learn how to budget for yourself and how you can control your money.

The aim of this WebQuest is to give you an insight on how to clearly define a budget, understand the importance of budgeting for the future and learn how to apply budgets to various situations.

Imagine being finished with secondary school and preparing to go to college. In this WebQuest, you will be asked to make a monthly budget detailing all your income and expenses. You will be required to write your budget on a provided worksheet, and get your information from online sources, noting the sites that you used.

The first step will be for you to find out how much tuition you will be charged, and the cost of living is in your chosen city. The next steps include finding a place to live, searching for a job, and creating your budget.

Step 1: Figuring out tuition and cost of living in chosen city

First, you need to figure out the total cost of tuition and living in your chosen city. When does tuition need to be paid? Is it possible that you are entitled to some form of government grant?
Then think about your general cost of living such as food, transport, books, phone/internet bills and whatever else you think of.

Below you can find steps to make a budget and some examples of expenses you might incur:

7 Steps to a Budget made easy
10 tips on budgeting for teens
Budgeting for teens
Information on Accommodation for third-level students
Step 2: Finding a place to live

You will need to find suitable accommodation for your time in university. It is time to start searching through the property websites and finding either a room, house, or apartment for you to stay. Is there enough on-campus accommodation for you to stay at, or do you need to search further afield for something cheaper?

Here are a few websites you can find a room on to get you started:

• www.daft.ie

• www.Let.ie

Read more about finding student accommodation through the following:

• Expense tracker worksheet Calculator

• Finding Student Accommodation

• Student Accommodation

• 5 things to know about finding college accommodation
Step 3: Find a part-time job for income

Now that you have a place to live and an estimate of your cost of living, you want to find a job that you can work at while in university. Do you have work experience in a sector? Or will this be your first job? The next task is to try and find a job to support you that can also fit around a college schedule. Here are some websites to start your job hunt, good luck:

Website for Student Jobs
Job-Searching Website Specific to non-profit and community work

You can find more job-hunting tips for students below:

10 Smarter Ways to find a job
The Student Job Hunting Handbook
Job Hunting for Students and Graduates
Step 4: Create your budget

You are now aware of the level of income and expenses you have each month. The next task is to create a monthly budget that includes all your incomings and outgoings.

Below you will find some sample templates you could use to help you calculate your budget. You can also find or create your own and print it out:
Monthly Expenses Tracker
Teen Budget Worksheet
Sample Budget for Teens

As part of the assessment of this WebQuest, we are asking learners to complete a short self-reflection exercise and write 300-350 words on how they rated their performance in the task, what elements they enjoyed or didn't enjoy and what they would do differently if they were to repeat the activity again.

The following questions will guide this self-assessment:

How easy was it for you to transfer this knowledge to your friend?
What elements of this activity did you enjoy best?
What aspect did you find most challenging and why?
What skills did you acquire through this activity? Is there something you were good at that you did not think you would be good at?
If you were to do this activity again, would you do things differently next time? What and why?

After complete this WebQuest, I can:

List different currencies	Yes	No
Reflect about the role of issuing currency in an economy	Yes	No
Describe the role of exchange rate	Yes	No
Outline the impact of the exchange rate on exports	Yes	No
Research about your currency history	Yes	No
Compile reasons why countries may want to have own currency	Yes	No
Analyse why currencies have different value	Yes	No
Identify how international exchange rates set	Yes	No
Showcase the major aspect of the history of your currency	Yes	No
Share with your family the information you got	Yes	No
Evaluate what you buy from different countries/currencies online	Yes	No
Evaluate what your family buys from different countries/currencies and why	Yes	No

*If you answered NO to more than half of the statements, you should go through WebQuest again and acquire more knowledge and skills if you answered YES to almost all questions; congratulations on your great success!

Congratulations, you are finished! This WebQuest has challenged you to delve deeper into the importance of budgeting and financial planning. Being able to budget is a valuable life-skill, especially with finances often being tight as a student. Hopefully this WebQuest has left you with a better idea of how you would plan for college and the costs associated.