Skip to main content

Worksheet 3.3.3 Gracie's Budget
A4US

In this lab, you will create a budget spreadsheet to keep track of monthly income, expences, and savings, and you will use several spreadsheet functions and formulas.

1.

Create a new spreadsheet in Goolge Sheets, Microsoft Excel or Apple Numbers. This lab will refer to functions and formulas in Google sheets.

2.

Gracie wants to save for a summer vacation with her friends. She estimates that her vacation will cost $2000. Can she afford to go? To find out, she decides to buget her income and expenses for the spring semester to determine if she'll have enough money saved in order to go. Set up your spreadsheet so that it matches the picture below.

3.

Fill in the bugdget with the following information

  • Gracie's first job makes $500 a month.

  • Gracie only works her second job during March, April, and May. She makes $200 each of those months.

  • Gracie receives birthday money from some of her relatives in February totally $75.

  • Gracie pays for $35 of school supplies in January and $15 in March.

  • Gracie spends $100 a month on groceries.

  • Gracie spends $10 a month on toiletries (toothpaste, shampoo, etc.)

  • Gracie spends $25 a month on streaming services.

  • Gracie spends $70 a month on eating out and getting coffee.

  • Gracie spends $20 on birthday gifts for her family in the months of January (her mom), March (her brother), and May (her dad).

  • Gracie spends $45 on gasoline each month because she visits her family many weekends during the school year.

4.

Create formulas for the “Total” column, the “Month Total” rows, and the “Savings” row.

5.

You should end up computing Gracie's total savings as a number less than her goal of $2000. How much money does she save up in this scenario? How much is she short of her goal?

6.

Help Gracie decide what expenses to cut in order to reach her goal. Precisely list everything she should change, and what her new total savings will be after making your suggested changes.

7.

Copy and paste your spreadsheet into the space below.

8.

Use moral, ethical, and/or biblical reaons to explain why the changes you suggested above were the best choices for Gracie. Feel free to use your imagination to fill in necessary details about her life. Write 1-3 paragraphs.

This question will be graded according to your use of ethical, moral, or Biblical principles in your reasoning, and your use of numbers in your reasoning, such as:

  1. Interpretation: Ability to explain information presented in mathematical forms (e.g., equations, graphs, diagrams, tables, words)

  2. Application / Analysis: Ability to make judgments and draw appropriate conclusions based on the quantitative analysis of data, while recognizing the limits of this analysis

  3. Communication: Expressing quantitative evidence in support of the argument or purpose of the work (in terms of what evidence is used and how it is formatted, presented, and contextualized)