Budgeting is useful to many different types of entities, including the individual. Consider an entity that you know well, the college or university student. Form a group of two to six students, and pool the information that you have about what it costs to spend a year as a full-time student.

Prepare a revenue and expense budget for an average prospective full-time student at your college or university. Identify possible sources of revenue and the amount to be received from each. Identify the costs a student is likely to incur during the year. To simplify your analysis, assume that cash disbursements are made immediately for all expenses so the budgeted income statement and cash budget are identical.

When all groups have completed their budgets, compare those budgets. What are the differences?

What assumptions led to the differences?