1.4.3 Increase your financial literacy
This online activity is designed to increase your financial literacy level
through a single practical activity. After doing the activity you can expect to be able
to draw up a household budget in a (more) responsible way.
Go through Marie-Elise’ spending list and break them into two groups: essential and non-essential. Identify ways of moving items from the essential list into the non-essential list. Can you identify additional categories of expense not covered by this list or which might be added to the list in the future?
Attempt to answer questions 2 & 3. In so doing, can you identify ways of moving items from the essential list into the non-essential list?
Share your answers with your peers or with a fellow parent, preferably via the blog/ comments section set up for this course.
Questions
- Marie-Elise overspends each month and she is concerned that her debts are increasing
significantly. - Suggest four changes that Marie-Elise could make to her essential spending to help to
improve his financial situation. - Suggest four changes that Marie-Elise could make to her non-essential spending to help to
improve her financial situation. - Explain how improvements in Marie-Elise’s financial situation would benefit her immediately
and her long-term financial planning.
Marie- Elise’s Spending List
- Marie-Elise is 25 years old and lives alone in a two-bedroomed house
- She earns a monthly salary working in a full-time job.
- Her typical monthly spending includes:
- Rent for her house
- Council Tax
- Gas & electricity
- Cigarettes
- Designer label clothes
- Food
- Fuel for her car, mainly to get to work and back
- Cafes, pubs & clubs
- Savings for foreign holidays
- Bank overdraft charge