Week 5: Budgeting Task
Mahi Tahua — Limited Resources · You Have $50. Make Your Choices Count.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga · Learning Intentions
- Experience scarcity and trade-offs firsthand — you cannot have everything, so you must choose
- Practise budgeting: addition, subtraction, and constraint-based decision-making
- Reflect on what the choices reveal — your values, your priorities, and what you're willing to give up
- Connect personal budgeting to broader economic decisions about food, resources, and equity
Paearu Angitu · Success Criteria
- I have made one choice per category and my total does not exceed $50
- I can calculate my total correctly — showing my working
- My reflection names the trade-offs I made — what I gave up and why
- I can connect my choices to the concepts of scarcity and opportunity cost — not just "I chose the cheapest option"
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
Level 3–4: understand that all economic decisions involve trade-offs and opportunity costs; experience scarcity as a real constraint, not just a definition; develop critical thinking about resource allocation and what choices reveal about values and priorities.
Level 4: apply arithmetic to practical decision-making; add and subtract decimals and whole numbers in realistic contexts; understand that mathematical accuracy matters — a $1 error in a household budget is a real consequence. This is numeracy in service of economic understanding.
Te Āhuatanga · Scenario
You need to cover three essential costs for one week. You have exactly $50. You must choose one option per category. Your total must be $50 or less. Every dollar you spend is a dollar you cannot spend on something else.
Āpitihanga 1 · Category 1 — Kai / Food
| Option | Description | Cost | Choose |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Basic staples — rice, bread, eggs. Covers hunger but limited nutrition variety. | $15 | ☐ |
| B | Balanced meals — staples plus vegetables and protein (beans/chicken). Better nutrition, more variety. | $25 | ☐ |
| C | Full nutrition — fresh produce, meat, dairy, staples. Best nutrition, widest variety, highest cost. | $35 | ☐ |
My choice: Option _____ Cost: $_____ What I give up by not choosing C: ___________________
Āpitihanga 2 · Category 2 — Hāerenga / Transportation
| Option | Description | Cost | Choose |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Bus pass — 1 week unlimited travel on public transport. No ownership, dependent on timetable. | $12 | ☐ |
| B | Bike repairs and lock — one-time cost, reusable every week after. Long-term value, short-term pain. | $20 | ☐ |
| C | Car fuel — 1 week, flexible travel but high weekly cost and no asset built up. | $30 | ☐ |
My choice: Option _____ Cost: $_____ Reason for this choice: ___________________
Āpitihanga 3 · Category 3 — Whakawhiti Kōrero / Communication
| Option | Description | Cost | Choose |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Basic phone credit — calls only, limited texts. Enough to reach whānau in an emergency. | $10 | ☐ |
| B | Phone plus internet data — calls, texts, and limited internet. Enough for school and basic connection. | $18 | ☐ |
| C | Full phone plan — calls, data, and unlimited internet. Maximum connection, maximum cost. | $25 | ☐ |
My choice: Option _____ Cost: $_____ What would be harder without full internet? ___________________
Tatau Katoa · Calculate Your Total
My Budget Summary
If your total exceeds $50, you must change a choice. Show your working.
Whakaaro Hōhonu · Reflection — Why These Choices?
Write a paragraph explaining your choices. Include: what trade-offs you made, what you gave up, and why this was the best allocation given $50.
The hardest trade-off was between:
If I had $40 instead of $50, the first thing I would cut is:
What does this budget task tell me about scarcity and the choices poor households face every week?
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
In te ao Māori, the concept of utu (reciprocity and balance) applies to resource allocation. You cannot take more than you give back — whether from the land, a community, or a budget. The rua kūmara (storage pit) was a Māori solution to scarcity: harvest carefully, store wisely, and release slowly so the community survives through winter. The discipline of a budget is the same principle — allocate carefully so the essentials are covered before the extras.
The choices in this task reveal values. If someone chooses the cheapest food and the most communication data, they may be prioritising connection over nutrition. That is not wrong — it tells you something about what matters to them. In te ao Māori, whakaaro (thinking things through) before acting is itself a form of kaitiakitanga — guardianship of your own resources, your own wellbeing, and the wellbeing of those who depend on you.
Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Support Materials
Resources already provided:
- This budgeting task — keep your working to show your numeracy process
- Quick Reference Card (unit-10-quick-reference-card.html) — definitions of scarcity, trade-off, and opportunity cost
- Choice Reflection (unit-10-week5-choice-reflection.html) — extend your thinking about what the choices reveal
- Trade-off Role-Play (unit-10-week5-trade-offs-roleplay.html) — experience scarcity decisions in a larger scenario
Aronga Rerekē · Differentiated Pathways
Tīmata · Entry Level
Complete the budget with support. Focus on making the total add up correctly. Write two sentences for the reflection: one trade-off you made, and one thing you would change if you had $10 more.
Paerewa · On Level
Complete the budget independently. Write a full reflection paragraph including the trade-off concept. Answer both extension questions (the hardest trade-off, and the $40 scenario).
Tūāpae · Extension
Complete the task, then research: what does Statistics NZ say the average weekly household expenditure on food is in New Zealand? How does the $15 food option compare to that figure? What does this reveal about food poverty? Connect your findings to the unit's theme of scarcity and who it affects most.
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
Students will engage with this resource to investigate the intersection of kai (food), culture, and climate — exploring how mātauranga Māori approaches to food production, preservation, and distribution offer powerful responses to contemporary food security and climate challenges in Aotearoa New Zealand and globally.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ Students can explain how traditional Māori kai practices (maramataka, kūmara cultivation, rāhui) embody ecological knowledge and food security principles.
- ✅ Students can connect kai culture and climate scarcity to contemporary community action and food sovereignty movements.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Provide graphic organisers that map traditional kai practices to modern food security concepts at the entry level. Offer extension tasks asking students to research a specific iwi's traditional food system and evaluate its contemporary relevance, or to investigate a local food sovereignty initiative.
ELL / ESOL: Pre-teach domain vocabulary (food sovereignty, food security, kaitiakitanga, rāhui, maramataka) using visual diagrams and real-world examples. Draw connections to students' own cultural food traditions — these are valid entry points into the unit's themes. Allow oral or visual presentation of learning as alternatives to written tasks.
Inclusion: Kai is a universal human experience — all students have a relationship with food, seasonality, and sharing. Neurodiverse learners benefit from concrete, hands-on engagement with these concepts (e.g., examining a kūmara, mapping seasonal foods). Acknowledge diverse economic circumstances sensitively when discussing food security. Choice in how students demonstrate understanding (written, visual, oral) supports inclusive assessment.
Mātauranga Māori lens: The maramataka — the Māori lunar calendar — is one of Aotearoa's most sophisticated environmental data systems, encoding centuries of ecological observation about planting, harvesting, fishing, and weather patterns. Kūmara cultivation in pre-colonial Aotearoa was a feat of agricultural knowledge adapted to a new climate. Rāhui (temporary resource restrictions) is indigenous resource management — conservation before conservation. Kaitiakitanga frames the relationship between people and kai not as extraction but as reciprocal guardianship. These are not historical curiosities — they are living solutions to contemporary problems.
Prior knowledge: Students benefit from foundational understanding of climate change and food systems. No specialist mātauranga Māori knowledge required for entry-level engagement — the unit builds this knowledge progressively.
Curriculum alignment
- Place and Environment — Social Studies: Understand how people's management of resources reflects their values and their view of sustainability — and how mātauranga Māori frameworks provide models for sustainable resource management.
- Ecology — Living World: Understand how human activities and natural factors affect the distribution and abundance of organisms; evaluate the impact of changes on ecosystem health and food systems.