Money talks, and so will your students with this engaging B1 money management lesson for Talk About Money Day on 8th November! Money management is an essential life skill, and learning how to make thoughtful decisions about spending, saving, and everyday expenses can be both practical and engaging for English learners. This lesson gives students the opportunity to explore the relationship between spending habits and financial wellbeing while developing useful language for talking about money and personal finance.
Once again, everything fell into place, and I ended up with three groups discussing finance. Since this topic is still fresh in my mind, I figured it’d be a great idea to show my students a video that dives into people’s spending habits and the ways of cutting down on monthly expenses. The main goal of the class is to get everyone talking and speculating about how regular people handle their money.
If your students are like mine and love chatting about money, spending habits, and saving tips, just scroll to the end of the post to grab the presentation, worksheet, and teacher’s notes.
Warmer: Where Did the Money Go?
The lesson starts with a fictional person’s weekly spending. Students calculate how much the person spends in one week. Then they work out how much this would add up to over a month and a year if they continued spending at the same rate. This is a simple way to introduce the idea that small everyday expenses can quickly add up. They look at the expenses more closely and decide which ones they consider necessary, which could be reduced, and which are unnecessary. This sets up the main theme of the lesson without immediately asking students to discuss their own personal finances.
Listening for Gist: Overspending and Saving Tips
The input of the class is a video from Careers and Personal Finance by Khan Academy about spending habits and saving tips. Before diving into it, students think of three areas where people usually overspend. If they’re having a tough time coming up with ideas, show an example, like how people often splurge on the latest clothes. Students pair up and brainstorm three common areas where people tend to spend too much. After eliciting some answers, watch the video Easy Tips to Save Money Every Day and see if their answers were mentioned.
Watch the video again. This time zero in on some specific questions about each topic they bring up (like supermarkets, household expenses, transportation, and activities). If you feel like it, pause after each section and dive into the ideas covered in the video.
Post-Listening Discussion: Money-Saving Tips
After watching the video, students look at several money-saving tips mentioned in it and discuss whether they agree with them. They explain their opinions and consider whether each tip would actually work in real life. This gives them an opportunity to respond to the ideas from the listening. It also allows them to use the language of agreeing, disagreeing, and giving reasons.
Case Study: Budget Challenge
This lesson was designed for a Business English group made up of finance pros. To wrap things up, we decided to have a fun discussion about a made-up character. Mmoney can be a touchy subject in Spain, especially when it comes to salaries. That’s why I went with a fictional person. The students read about Marta, a graphic designer who’s trying to save up for her upcoming vacation. In pairs, they look over her salary and expenses and then brainstorm the best advice for her. Discuss how much she should ideally spend each month on things like food, entertainment, and transportation. They also come up with ideas for cutting costs on rent and household expenses. If you’ve got some extra time, why not debate how young people manage their money? Discuss whether Marta should focus on saving for the future or spend more on enjoying life now.
Final Discussion: Money Management
To finish the lesson, give students three questions about money management and discuss them as a class. Encourage them to share their opinions, explain their choices, and compare different approaches to saving and spending. This final discussion gives students a chance to reflect on the ideas from the lesson and talk more generally about healthy money-management habits.
I think my students will have a blast chatting about the different ways they save money, and it’ll help everyone make smarter financial choices. If you agree that classes should mix in some useful vocabulary with real-life conversations, check out the links below for the presentation, worksheet, and teacher’s notes.
Have you ever used personal finance as a topic in your English lessons?
1 thought on “B1 – Saving Money: Everyday Expenses”