The Budget Planning Service will be structured around three steps.
The first step is a questionnaire form that the students must complete. The survey is an in-depth
budgeting questionnaire that asks students what they think they are spending on specific
items/expenses. The results of this survey will be sent to the A&W team.
For the second step, the student will be asked to submit three months of bank statements. The A&W
team will then use the bank statements to calculate how much the student actually spent over the
last three months. This information will be compiled into a report to be presented to the
student.
The final step is a meeting between the student and A&W team member, where they will discuss the
report and formulate a realistic budget based on the survey and report results. In this meeting,
the role of the A&W staff member is to facilitate the discussion, rather than provide advice. It
is intended to be directed by the student, as they need to feel comfortable with the budget if
they are going to stick with it.