Bite of Reality held for Guided Studies students

Aragon held its first Bite of Reality event, a two and a half hour simulation focusing on the difficulties of budgeting and finance management, in the Student Lunch Room on Oct. 29 for its Guided Studies students. Excited by the results of last year’s Bite of Reality at Burlingame High School, Aragon’s Guided Studies teachers brought the event to Aragon this year.

Bite of Reality is a financial simulation put on by local credit unions and funded by the Richard Myles Johnson Foundation. SF Police, Patelco Credit Union, San Mateo Credit Union, United Health Credit Union and Sequoia Federal Credit Union were the participating companies.

In Bite of Reality, students are given the identities of young adults just coming out of high school. They are given information about a fictitious family, salary and monthly payment obligations, and they use this information to figure out which items fit into their monthly budget. Students are also given a checkbook and a calculator, along with a sheet where they can log all of their payments and keep track of all the money they were spending. They went around to seven different stations: Groceries and Dining, Shopping, Transportation, Housing and Utilities, Kid Care, Clothing and Personal Care, Entertainment and Household Needs. They had to buy everything they needed, and they had to find a balance between what they needed and what they wanted.

If students got stuck, the Credit Union station would guide them in the right direction. Specifically, the volunteers at this station tried to help students ask the right questions that would help get them back on track.

Patelco Credit Union Head of Financial Literacy Rebecca Nicolay says, “As they go to each vendor and purchase things for their monthly expenses, they’re going to subtract it from their budget and make sure that they’re living within their means because their goal is to have enough money for savings.”

Aragon Guided Studies teachers Jennifer Wei, Jennifer Johnson, and Amanda Clothier had high hopes for the event. They wanted the students to come away from the experience with a better sense of the challenges of growing up and what they are headed for. Clothier says, “Because I have juniors and seniors in my classes who are really close to that next step of being out and financially independent, I’m hoping that this gives them an actual taste of what it’s like to be an adult with the choices that we have to make each day, given our budget situation.”

Wei agrees, saying that she wanted students to realize that being an adult is difficult. “They find out what it means to have to save money or what it means to live paycheck to paycheck and how devastating that can be for some people if they don’t have a job that they want. Hopefully it will motivate our students to really be mindful about the careers that they intend to have,” says Wei.

Freshman Joey Urbina believes that it is important for students his age to learn about budgeting. He was able to recognize through Bite of Reality how hard budgeting is. “It is good to appreciate how hard it is for your parents, and eventually you’re going to have to learn to budget too,” he says.

Overall, Bite of Reality was able to teach students the basics of budgeting. Wei concludes, “There are very real and concrete consequences that follow when we don’t make the right decisions, but if you don’t make the right decision, it’s okay. There are resources out there for people who haven’t made great decisions.”