- Fulfills Step 5 of GSUSA Budget Builder badge requirements.
Items Needed:
- Paper
- Pencil or crayon
- Sample price list (See Below) or Shopping Flash cards by GSUSA
- Optional: Calculator
Instructions (Estimated Time: 20–30 minutes):
- Team Up and Choose a Meal (5–7 minutes)
- Scouts work in pairs or small teams.
- Each team chooses a meal they want to cook, a full dinner (main + side + drink). (Bonus challenge: Prepare a full meal for two people.)
- Alternate Challenge: Feed the entire team! Plan a meal big enough for everyone where the budget is $15 per scout, pooled as one team (e.g. 4 scouts = $60)
- Encourage simple meals like spaghetti, quesadillas, or soup.
- Make a Shopping List (5–7 minutes)
- Teams write down all the ingredients they’ll need.
- Remind them to think about items they might already have at home (like salt or oil) and not add those to the cost.
- Use a Budget (10 minutes)
- Each team gets $15 in pretend money.
- They estimate the cost of each ingredient and add up the total.
- If they go over $15, they can:
- Swap ingredients
- Remove extras
- Pretend to borrow something from home or a neighbor
- Share and Reflect (5–7 minutes)
- Each team shares their meal and how they stayed within the budget.
- Encourage them to think about:
- What changes they made
- If they could cook this meal in real life
- Why planning ahead helps save money
Pretend Grocery Price List
This list supports a variety of simple meal ideas like spaghetti, tacos, sandwiches, breakfast foods, soups, or veggie-based dishes. All prices are rounded to keep it approachable and ideal for working with a $15 team budget. Remind scouts to skip pantry staples like salt, pepper, or cooking oil in their total—they can “pretend” those are already at home.
| Ingredient | Price |
|---|---|
| Box of pasta | $2 |
| Can of pasta sauce | $3 |
| Shredded cheese (small bag) | $3 |
| Ground beef or turkey | $4 |
| Tortillas (pack) | $2 |
| Can of beans | $1 |
| Rice (small bag) | $2 |
| Bread (loaf) | $2 |
| Peanut butter | $3 |
| Jelly or jam | $2 |
| Eggs (half dozen) | $2 |
| Cheese slices | $2 |
| Sliced turkey or ham | $3 |
| Canned soup | $2 |
| Carrots or celery (bundle) | $2 |
| Apple or banana (each) | $1 |
| Milk (half gallon) | $3 |
| Juice box (2-pack) | $2 |
| Crackers | $2 |
| Yogurt cup | $1 |
The Badge Archive 