Science Communication, Group R

Money Skills: Budget for 2018 - Student at UP

Activity 10-2

How much money will I need for my studies?

Aim
To help learners understand how to draft a budget and to make them aware of the expenses they will have as students.

This activity is to be done on the computers in the Goldfields Computer Laboratory.

• Open the Example_budget.xlsx workbook in Excel – it is in the root folder of the network drive -
  and save it as yoursurname_budget.xlsx in your folder.
• There should be three sheets in the workbook, Income, Expenses and Cash flow.
  Note: you will draft a budget for the whole of 2018 and then calculate the average expenses per month.
  Set the cell properties in columns B of the Income and Expense sheets to Number -> Currency; do this for columns b to M on the Cash flow sheet.

Activity 2A – Your Income

• On the Income sheet, list all sources of income you may have next year, e.g. allowance (parents), bursary, loan, part-time job, money from family, etc. Estimates are good enough.
• Calculate your total income for 2018 using the SUM-formula and the Average per month. 
• Create a pie chart of your income for the year 2018.

Activity 2B – Your Expenses

• On the Expenses sheet list your expenses e.g. accommodation, meals, study fees, prescribed books, stationery, transport, clothing, phone, toiletries, sport, snacks, cigarettes, books &magazines (not study material), entertainment, car maintenance (petrol), other, …
• Now, find out what your study fees will be for the course you want to enrol in next year. To do that go to the “cost estimator” at http://estimate.up.ac.za/ , select the Faculty, programme, first year and indicate if you intend to stay in a residence. An estimate of the costs will be provided.
• Books: For this exercise we shall use an estimate of R 6000.00 for books for 2018. Prices for a few prescribed books are listed to give you an indication of what books cost. Some books are available as e-books; they are much cheaper, but you need a computer, tablet of smart phone to read them. So, If you have to buy technology, add it to your expenses.
• Course related costs: Some courses will require you buy a clicker (R600.00) or to invest in either a smart phone or a tablet. For Physics – and possibly for some engineering courses -  you will need a smart phone or tablet during lectures; some of the biological sciences use clickers in the classroom. Add these costs to your expenses.
• Go to Fees, other costs to find out what other expenses you should take into account:
• Make estimates for all the other expenses listed on your expense sheet.
• Calculate your total expenses for the year 2018 as well as the average expense per month.
• Create a pie chart for all the expenses listed for the whole year 2018.
• What percentage of your expenses goes towards your study fees?
• What percentage of your expenses is for meals?
• And for transportation?

Activity 2C – Your Cash flow

• Cash flow: Transfer your monthly expenses to the cash flow sheet, taking the following into account:
• A registration fee of R5000 is due at least 5 days before you register in January
• Half (50%) of is payable by 30 April.
• The full (100%) the tuition fee is payable by 31 July.

• University residences & Meals: Information is available at: http://www.up.ac.za/en/fees-and-funding/article/277299/residence-fees#Residence_room_fee
• Reservation fee of R 5700 within 30 of being placed in a residence (that might be this year already.)
• Fees range from R34 000 to 45 000 for the year, depending on the residence and if you rent a single or double room. For this exercise use an amount of R 36 000 for accommodation if you are planning to stay in a residence. If you plan to rent a private room / flat use R 48 000.
  Half (50%) of the residence fee is payable by 30 April and the remainder by 31 July.
• Meals: R 28 800 for 3 meals per day for the year in a residence. If you will be responsible for your own meals, try to estimate the costs.
   
• Calculate how much money you will need in each of the 12 calender months

• Draw a bar graph to illustrate your cashflow for the year.
  
  

Example of prices for precribed books

References & Resources

• Barclays Bank. 20??. Barclays Money Skills toolkit.
  Viewed online on 10 March 2016 at : http://www.barclaysmoneyskills.com/~/media/Files/Schoolchildren%20Resources/BMS_ages_16-25_toolkit.pdf