What is a budget, how much money does a four-member family set aside for the household, what is a loan, and why was I paid less money than what was written in the contract – these are just some of the questions answered by Savremena’s students from grades V–VIII.

Vida Tomašević, the senior expert associate for exhibitions and education at the National Bank of Serbia, gathered students from grades V–VIII at the workshop called “My Budget and Me”. Many students encountered concepts such as gross, net, deficit, surplus and loan for the first time, but regardless of that, after the workshop, they began to manage their budget.

The students were faced with different scenarios – a family of four, a single parent with children, a married couple with one child, roommates or a single person without children. In each scenario, they had to take into account all the monthly expenses and calculate the budget allocation. Before that, they were given the task of calculating the net amount of earnings based on the presented gross amount, in order to get the monthly budget.

The task our students were given was not at all easy – we had to consider the prices of groceries, monthly bills, household expenses, and also possible loan expenses, in order to be sure that we really took into account everything that can affect our budget.

Many of the students were very creative with their expenses, so many of them actually saved money!

The Life Skills project brought us laughter and fun, but also a lot of useful knowledge that we will know how to use at any given moment.