Week 10 Lab: Basic Adulting 101

A Lab converting a household buying pattern into a standing schedule

Before the Lab#

Bring your last month of grocery or household receipts, or your best estimate of what you buy and how often.

In the Lab#

Introduction. Last week’s editing skill was cutting extra words down to the one thing that actually needed saying. This week the same instinct points at a budget: cutting a fixed amount of money down to the priorities that actually survive the cut.

Activity 1 (groups of 4): Budget triage. Given a fixed weekly budget split across five categories — groceries, transport, subscriptions, “emergency” takeaway, and savings — each group must cut 20% from the total and decide where it comes from.

Presentation: Each group shares their most controversial cut, and what almost got cut instead.

Activity 2 (pairs): Grocery list. The tutor hands each pair a brief: $450 take-home for the week, $70 of it earmarked for groceries, and a household already limited to two servings of instant noodles for the week. Draft a real one-week grocery list against the $70 that repeats no meal more than twice. Then, for at least three household items, work out how long you actually have before you run out, and set a standing schedule — a recurring order or a recurring trip — that would have avoided your most recent rush purchase.

Discussion / debrief (pairs): Swap your list and schedule with one other student for one thing they’d flag before you actually went shopping.

Wrap-up: Keep the list and the schedule — both feed directly into Assignment 3.

Afterwards#

Keep the schedule. Assignment 3’s grocery and budget components both draw on the numbers calculated here.