Budget Cents program allows Mesa Verde High School students to practice real-world budgeting skills

12th-grade students at Mesa Verde High School got a taste of real-world financial decision-making during the Budget Cents program on April 23, a hands-on simulation aimed at building budgeting and money management skills before graduation.

For the third year, Mesa Verde has partnered with SAFE Credit Union to bring the Budget Cents program to their campus, which challenges students to manage a monthly budget based on a randomly assigned occupation, marital status and number of children. 

Using real-world costs for essentials like housing, transportation and food in the greater Sacramento area, students had to make their own financial choices.

“In the real world, you can choose what you do, but it does open their eyes to new careers. How can you budget with what you have, when your career path isn’t always what you planned?” said teacher Spencer Murrish, who helps to put on this annual event at Mesa Verde.

12th grader Gauri was assigned the occupation of an Uber driver and quickly realized how difficult it is to stretch a paycheck.

“Today made me realize how essential it is to manage your money. If you don’t, you can really go into debt for ages, and it’s really hard to recover from that,” she said. 

Kozy and Azzy, also 12th graders, were both given careers as photographers, but with different life circumstances that shaped the way they chose to budget. 

“It was hard for me to not get those low-maintenance items because I have a family, I have a husband, so I need to make sure I prepare for myself and for them all at the same time,” Kozy said. 

What stood out most to Kozy was the price of housing in the region.

“The housing makes me think differently about money. It does cost a lot and depending on what you do get, it’ll mess you up a little bit,” she said. 

Azzy said the event helped him shift his mindset about spending.

“I know in real life this is definitely going to be hard, and [the Budget Cents program] helped me to balance what I need and what I actually don’t need, but I can still get the stuff I want in the future,” he said. 

Murrish said that programs like Budget Cents are vital for helping students build a foundation in financial literacy as they prepare for life after high school.

“The biggest thing I want the students to walk away with is knowing where to go for more answers and at least have it in the back of their mind, that gut instinct when they know something is wrong financially, especially when being approached by people with loans and sales pitches,” Murrish said. 

By the end of the experience, students walked away with both a deeper understanding of how far a paycheck can go and a better sense of how to plan for their financial future.