Teenagers and money are a bad combination. And that is the blog post.
Ha. Just kidding. Maybe.
But in all seriousness, most exchange students coming over have never had to deal with managing their own budgets and that can make for a difficult time. I mean, no one ever told me how to budget money and I still struggle so I feel for them so sometimes we learn together. Depending on the student and their budget this can be a quick learning experience at the beginning, a year long struggle, or no struggle because they have large budget.
Exchange students are supposed to pay for anything outside the house (restaurants, activities, school/sports things, their portion of vacation) as well as personal items (shampoo, makeup, clothes, so forth). They should also pay for their extra snacks, we buy mostly healthy snacks and some “junk food”, if they want more they have to buy it. They need to pay for their phone plan and any other classes/memberships they want. So this is where their budget goes.
How to budget.
The most helpful thing is for the student to be able to see what money they have, we have had students that can see (login into an account) and students that have to call mom/dad every time they need to know their balance. The latter gets exhausting. Encourage your students (preferably ahead of arrival) to work something out with their parents so that they can see their money. The only other way to keep track of money is the receipt plan, where they know what they started with and then basically keep a ledger of their transactions. Good luck. They don’t keep receipts, they throw them away or loose them, shops are going more paperless so they might not have even received one, or they shop online (which is generally easy to find if they keep their emails—-hahahahahaha). We tried this method with two students, one with a very large budget and one with a rather small budget, and neither has worked. They need to see their money.
So for students that struggle, we have tried the above receipt plan and the cash and envelope plan. Cash and envelopes. They take out their money (maybe not all of it) at the beginning of the month and then they label some envelopes and divide their cash up. Envelopes can include: snacks, activities, prom, school supplies, sports equipment, membership fees (keep the phone money in the account for auto withdrawal, they will forget to pay it otherwise), clothes, personal items, vacation, and whatever else your student finds important. Some are “saving” envelopes like prom and vacation (to add money to every month) and some are “spending” envelopes such as snacks and personal items. Now the key to this plan is to stick to the plan and not spend it all on snacks because they were hungry one afternoon. Also don’t borrow from the “saving” envelopes unless it is an emergency (chocolate is not an emergency). Just like exchange in general you get out what you put in, if you keep borrowing from the prom fund you might not be going.
Now, some students are excellent at managing their own money, or mom/dad bail them out when they need extra, so you can let them do their own thing. Most of these students are the ones that can see their money and know when they need to cut going out all the time or buying packs and packs of Oreos in order to make it till the end of the month (or next refill by mom/dad). These students might just need the occasional nudge of a reminder, especially with those cell phone plans that are auto withdrawal. Most of these students do well after the first month or so, I mean cash in hand without mom/dad looking over your shoulder for the first time! Shopping spree!
It is important to go over with all your students, money-mindful ones and the clueless ones (I say this with love because I also fall into this category), when they should expect to be spending more than average. The most common times when spending is higher are: the beginning (they need to get school/sports stuff and established for the year), Christmas/winter (gifts and winter clothes), prom (obvious), graduation/end of exchange (if the school allows them to participate the will need to buy the appropriate gear, and end of year gifts/cards/bills). And then add when you will be going on vacation or planning a more expensive outing. We try to let our students know as far in advance as possible for any big ticket events, and then we remind them and have it on a calendar that everyone can see.
Money stress can make or break the year and the sooner your student learns how to manager their own finances the better. Not to mention mastering this skill early in life will help them greatly down the road into adulthood. Your organization and/or IEC usually has more tips on this topic if you are in need.
One last thing: I do not regularly suggest involving the natural parents in matters on exchange, this is the one they could really help with: we usually talk to them about vacations so they know when their child will need extra funding; but you can include them with any concerns you have. And if they don’t speak English use your organization to help communicate if there is a problem.