Designed for third grade language arts students, this learning capsule contains student materials and a teacher's guide for a unit on budgeting. Objectives are to discriminate between wants and needs, distinguish parts of a budget, and construct a budget. The unit requires four to six hours of instructional time and is designed for use with a learning center. The student book provides directions for activities found in the learning center. Students analyze cartoons, make posters illustrating basic needs, make a needs and wants list, view filmstrips, and play a budgeting game. The teacher's guide provides objectives, instructions for making games and budget posters, tape scripts, cartoon scripts, pre- and posttests, and keys for all tests and worksheets. The appendix includes reproducible copies of pre- and posttests, worksheets, record sheets, and read-along books to accompany tapes. Materials include charts for students to record their spending habits, word search games, and a worksheet to determine immediate, intermediate, and long range spending goals. (KC)