Budget Balance

Welcome to your budget balance challenge. Your task is to navigate your way through a year through university and keep your budget balanced – stay in the black and out of the red.

At the same time, you would really like to buy a car! As you go along you will see your car and how much of it you have saved for. See if you can get your car by the end of the game.

Before we start, let's go over the basics…

Why is this important?

A budget is important because it helps you monitor and control what you’re spending. It could even help you save more money, prepare for emergencies, make better financial decisions, and stay focused on your long-term financial goals.

Being able to budget and be in control of your money is a really important skill. Knowing how much you have and how much you have spent will help you stay on top of your finances.

It will also help you think ahead. Sometimes spending more on something now will help you in the long term. For example, investing in pet insurance might be better than being hit by a big vet’s bill unexpectedly later on. And buying the more expensive headphones might mean they don’t break within two weeks so you have to buy another pair!

There is of course the option to borrow money. It can be a really good option; you just have to manage it correctly. Many people have mortgages, use credit cards, buy things on finance and so on. You do have to be careful when borrowing, though. If you don’t manage it well, it can also cause you to have a poor credit rating. This will mean that you’ll find it much harder to borrow money in the future. That could be whether you want to buy big things like a house or a car, and even the smaller things like getting a mobile phone on contract.

Without being able to budget properly, people can find themselves overspending (spending money they don’t have or can’t pay back) and this can lead to a debt spiral. This can be a very worrying situation to be in and can cause mental health and relationship problems.