Students will enter the project by comparing realistic life situations, examining everyday cost evidence, and building a quick starter budget trade-off they can defend with math and real-world examples.

Students will refine an investigation question, plan a method for building a realistic one-month budget from a life card, and draft an evidence-based trade-off they can later test and revise.

Students will analyze their one-month budget evidence, test whether their calculations and trade-offs hold up under review, and revise their budget board after feedback and an unexpected expense.

Students will present their completed one-month budget investigations to an authentic audience, defend a key trade-off with evidence, respond to questions about their surprise-cost revision, and complete a brief summative reflection on how their planning changed.