SLOP1521#

Introduction to Life: Foundations of Being a Person

Week 10 — Basic Adulting 101

The fridge, one last time#

Price out what’s actually in it.

Against what a week of groceries should cost.

Today’s scope#

Budgeting failure is rarely about income.

Usually about the absence of named categories. Basic budget categorisation, grocery planning, cooking, and a cleaning schedule.

What’s ahead#

• Why naming categories matters
• A real grocery list
• Cooking a complete meal, in order
• A cleaning schedule that actually recurs
• What Assignment 3’s budget section wants

Definitions#

• Budget (noun) — a named allocation of money to specific categories, prepared in advance of spending, not reconstructed afterward from bank statements.
• Grocery list (noun) — a written record of food to purchase, prepared before entering a supermarket, not while standing in it.

Key point 1 — Why naming categories matters#

Warren, E., & Warren Tyagi, A. (2005). All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan. Free Press.

The 50/30/20 rule: 50% of after-tax income to needs, 30% to wants, 20% to savings or debt.

Three named categories, not an unstructured sense of caution.

Check-in: If your weekly budget is $200, what does 50/30/20 look like in actual dollars?

Key point 2 — The fridge, priced out#

Its contents, set against a real, planned weekly grocery list.

The gap between what’s in the fridge and what a week actually costs to run properly.

Check-in: Roughly how much would it cost to replace the fridge's actual contents with one week of planned groceries?

Key point 3 — Cooking a complete meal, in order#

Pick one protein, one starch, one vegetable — that’s a complete meal, not three separate decisions.

Cook in order of how long each takes: slowest on first, fastest on last, so everything finishes within a few minutes of each other.

Taste before declaring it done — a recipe’s stated time is a starting guess, not a guarantee.

Check-in: If rice takes 20 minutes and a fried egg takes 3, which goes on the stove first?

Key point 4 — A cleaning schedule that actually recurs#

Same model as Week 2’s laundry schedule: name each recurring task — bins, floors, bathroom, surfaces.

Give each a fixed day or interval, not “when it looks dirty.”

A schedule catches a task before it’s visible; waiting for visible means it’s already overdue.

Check-in: Which of your own recurring cleaning tasks currently has no fixed day attached to it?

Key point 5 — What Assignment 3’s budget section actually wants#

Two marked criteria: Budget (10%) marks category coverage and plausibility against your stated income.

Grocery logistics (8%) marks a one-week grocery list against an explicit grocery budget, plausible against real prices, with a standing schedule for when recurring items run out.

Neither rewards a bigger number — both reward a number that survives contact with a real week.

Check-in: Between Budget and Grocery logistics, which one is actually marking whether your numbers are realistic against real prices?

In-lecture activity#

In pairs: apply 50/30/20 to a fixed hypothetical weekly amount — $150.

Name one specific thing in each of the three buckets.

Conclusion#

Categories, not totals, make a budget work.

The clearest lifetime payoff of any topic in this course.

You now have a real, priced grocery list template, a named-category method, a meal you can actually cook in order, and a cleaning schedule with a fixed day for every task.

Coming up: this week’s lab (budget triage and the grocery list).

This week’s reflection#

Due 12:00 Tuesday of week 11:

Itemise one of your own recent orders or shopping trips, and name the point where you always end up ordering at the last minute.

References#

Warren, E., & Warren Tyagi, A. (2005). All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan. Free Press.

A trade book, not a peer-reviewed paper — the genuine real-world origin of the 50/30/20 rule (50% needs, 30% wants, 20% savings/debt).