Goal:
To help students plan, budget, and be resourceful and financially responsible after they graduate from university.
Assumptions:
1. You are a recent USask graduate and will be working in whatever city you plan to live in once school is over.
You will be working in whatever field you plan on working in once you have graduated. (This does not
necessarily have to coincide with your “Major” but it must be realistic). Your start date is January 1, 2022.
You have to research your salary.
2. For sake of simplicity you can assume that your total income tax rate is 30%. This however does not include
CPP or EI (you need to estimate those). For the purposes of this budget you can present your earnings on a
monthly basis.
3. You have $1,000 as an opening balance in your bank account on January 1, 2022.
4. You will be living in an apartment of your choosing, for the entire year, and rent is due on the 1st of every
month. You must pay rent with cash/cheque. You need to find out how much rent will be in the city you
plan to live in. You will need to consider moving costs and/or costs for décor upon moving and settling into
your new apartment. You may have a roommate(s) if you wish. If you are going to have a roommate you
can factor this into your budget but it MUST be realistic. If basic utilities aren’t included in the rental
cost (per the housing website you use) then you must estimate and include them. To help you get started
your parents have paid your “last month’s rental deposit” so you only have to worry about paying rent on a
month-by-month basis. (Note: If you are planning on living at home after school you must still include rent
in your budget. The point of this exercise is to try and show you what life will be like when you truly become
financially independent).
5. You have a credit limit of $2,000 on your only credit card, with a 2%/month (simple interest). The minimum
monthly credit card payment is 3% of the previous month’s balance, interest included. You may pay the
balance in full each month, but you don’t have to. If you didn’t use the card you owe nothing. You also don’t
have to use the credit card at all – it’s just an option.
6. Because you are fiercely independent you will not borrow money from friends or family. You may include
however, any realistic gifts you think you may receive for your birthday and/or holidays you observe where
gifts may be given.
7. Acquire at least 7 of the 10 items in the box below. You can obtain these items in any legal way you choose,
except you cannot be “given” any of them. To support your purchase costs for these items, please provide
a calculation/price quote or online/printed ad supporting your budgeted/proposed purchase price,
separately in your project. Hyperlinks will not be accepted as support. If you already own many of the
items below, you need to determine at least 7 items that you will need to purchase during the budget period
as a result of moving into your own place and starting your life and include those purchases in your budget.
Casual Clothes
and Shoes
Couch or Comfy
Chair TV Work Clothing and
Shoes
Cleaning Supplies
and Vacuum
Bed Frame, Box
Spring and
Mattress
Kitchen Table
and Chairs
Computer and Desk
or Laptop
Dishes, Cutlery,
Pots and Pans
Chest of Drawers
or Desk
8. Also include the following items in your monthly budget:
a. Cell phone.
b. Cable/Netflix and Internet (if not already included with rent or utilities above.)
c. Food: All food, wherever you eat it. Please do not use any online estimates/food guides to come up
with your budgeted monthly food expenditures. Use your own current food costs and extrapolate (i.e.
you may eat more (or more expensive food) once you have a job. You may also go to more restaurants
than you do now.)
d. Entertainment: Consider a wide variety of entertainment, including movies, sporting events, travel…..
e. Insurance: Renters, health, other (as you deem appropriate)
f. If you choose not to have a car, budget for other modes of transportation (transit pass, Uber, Taxis,
etc.)
g. Medical Expenses: Consider prescriptions and co-pays for doctor visits, chiropractor, massage,
physio, etc.
h. If you have student loans, include a reasonable monthly repayment based on your best estimate.
If your student loans have a grace period, ignore that and pretend you will be paying them
immediately. If you do not have student loans, include this as $0 so I know you have not
forgotten it.
i. Emergency fund (you decide how much to maintain)
j. Savings (you decide what for. E.g. vacation, Christmas, large purchase, etc.)
k. Retirement Contributions. These are separate from savings, since they are for the distant future.
l. Charitable contributions. You have discretion on the amount and frequency, but consider them. If
you choose not to make charitable contributions, then indicate that. I would otherwise think you
had omitted it unintentionally.
m. Gifts for others. You have discretion on the amount and frequency, but consider them.
*If you don’t want to spend money on a particular item listed above (e.g. savings) you must include it as
$0 so I know you have not forgotten it.
9. There are many other items you will incur in your real lives (hair cuts, salon visits, tolls, parking fees,
dry-cleaning, gym membership) and I will be looking for at least three additional items beyond the ones
listed above. You are responsible for determining what these are.
10. Car: If you have a car or will be given a car when you graduate you need to include all associated
costs in your budget. These include any financing/lease payments, gas, maintenance, insurance,
parking, etc. If you don’t own a car and don’t plan on having one then say so in your assignment
but be sure to include other appropriate transportation costs (mass transit, taxis, uber, etc.).
Requirements and Deliverables:
The document you submit should include the following:
1. A document that includes 6 months of budgeted cash inflows and outflows. This must be done using
6 columns (one for each month) in an excel spreadsheet. Please format your 6-column budget so that
the width of all columns fits on one page and you must make your budget the first page of your
document. I have provided an example to assist you.
2. Your name, student number and section number must be indicated clearly on your assignment. Missing
items will result in a 10% penalty.
3. Your assignment must be stapled together in the top left corner. If it is not stapled together in the top
corner you will receive a 10% penalty.
4. You must include supporting documentation / assumptions / estimates / calculations / or reasoning for
all numbers. This may include clippings/screen captures from advertising circulars or online specials,
price quotes from online sources, and any and all calculations you made in arriving at the numbers in
your budgets. You do not need to have “proof” of every item in your budget. For example, for
medical/food/charity/gifts/etc. you can simply put in what you think you would spend based on your
current costs. You do need to have proof for major items such as your salary, rent, car expenses, cell
phone, etc. Hyperlinks are not permitted. All support MUST be printed and attached to your assignment.
5. You must “reference” each number included on your monthly budget to its related support/
documentation / assumption / calculation. (Please refer to the sample assignments provided)
Here’s how: next to the budgeted number on Page 1 of your assignment, write (in a different color or in
subscript) the page number of your support/documentation for that budgeted amount, ie, page 3. Then,
on that page 3 of your supporting documentation, highlight the number that is included on the first page
of your budget. All numbers on your budget should be tied to support and clearly labeled. This makes
grading more efficient if it’s easy to find support for your budgeted numbers. See provided example.
6. In a separate part of this assignment, in no more than 3 pages please include commentary on the
following:
a. What choices or sacrifices (if any) did you have to make?
b. What were your insights/observations/conclusions as a result of completing this assignment?
c. Were you surprised by anything as a result of doing this exercise?
d. Also include your response to the following scenario. On March 15, 2018, you open the mail
and find a $2,000 bill. The bill is due, in full, in 30 days. Be very specific and tell me how you
would pay it.
e. EVERYONE, whether you own a car or not, has to research what car you would buy/lease on
January 1, 2022 assuming you must get a car and had no other choice. The purpose of this is
to get you to see how buying/leasing a car impacts your budget! You need to figure out what
actual car you will acquire. New/Used? Lease/Buy? Then you need to figure out the impact
on your monthly budget.
You do NOT need to go back and adjust your budget for this requirement. You simply need to
write a few sentences to explain HOW you would change your budget if you HAD to include
these expenses. For example, say you now needed to come up with $600/month to cover the
cost of having a car. HOW would you adjust your budget to do that?
7. This assignment must be typed, with all pages numbered. The assignment will be graded for its overall
presentation.
Due Date:
Section 01: December 01, 2021, beginning of class – 1:00pm
Section 03: December 01, 2021, beginning of class – 2:30pm
Section 07: November 30, 2021, beginning of class – 4:00pm
You may however hand in this assignment any time you like. Students are encouraged to submit all
assignments in this course prior to the deadline to ensure no penalty is received for late submissions. No
extensions will be given except for very serious medical or family emergencies that can be documented.
All assignments must be handed in at the beginning of class on the due date. You need to take responsibility
for submitting this assignment on time. No reasons such as, “My computer died/was stolen”, “I was sick
and slept in”, “I forgot what day I was supposed to hand it in” or “I was abducted by aliens” will be a
justification for an extension. Assignments handed in late will receive a 20% penalty per day/partial day
past the deadline.
Method of Submission:
ONLY ONE acceptable method for submitting this assignment:
1. You must print & staple your assignment and submit it to me in-person.
2. You may NOT slide it under my office door. Any assignment submitted this way will not be graded.
3. You MAY NOT submit this assignment electronically via email, or Canvas, etc. for any reason. Any
assignment submitted electronically will not be graded.
Provided Example:
To assist you and make your life a little easier, an EXAMPLE is provided as to how your budget assignment
might be formatted. IT IS FOR EXAMPLE PURPOSES ONLY. YOU ARE ULTIMATELY
RESPONSBILE FOR 100% OF YOUR FINISHED ASSIGNMENT. As such, please make any/all
changes to the examples as you deem necessary. Please double check all formatting, calculations, etc. If
there are any errors/inconsistencies in the example, it is ultimately your responsibility so be diligent in your
work!
