Spending and Saving: Budgeting Daily Allowance of Senior High School Students in

Bato National High School

A Research Paper presented to the

Faculty of Senior High School Department

Bato National High School

Bato, Toledo City

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the subject

PRACTICAL RESEARCH 2 (Quantitative Research)

Researchers:

Jona N. Unabia

Joshua Caberte

Michaela Cavan

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 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

The most basic needs of a human life is money, without it, one cannot
fulfill his basic needs and requirements of their daily routine. The importance
of money is increasing day by day as the living becomes costly (Archana,
2017). Allowance refers to the amount of money that is given to students
based on the financial status of their parents and guardians. The allowance
can be used as a substitute for parental support, a supplement to other
income sources, or as an investment into future earnings (Galulu, et al.,
2017). Allowance is money earned or given to a child at regular interval to
teach the child how to manage money. (healthofchildren.com)

In the Philippines, a new program has been introduced to provide

students with an additional two years of high school education. This is a
program called the Senior High School Program, which will allow students to
graduate from their regular elementary or junior high school program and
move on to complete their secondary education. It is important that you take
responsibility for your future by making smart decisions now so that you can
prepare yourself for whatever life throws at you later on down the road.

Managing your allowance wisely is a challenge that comes with every

high school student. It is important to understand how to make the most of
your money and put it to good use. Many of the students encountered hard
time to budget the money given by their parents because if you are a senior
high school student you will experience the life of a college student. Money is
the essential needs to every student now a day they need to be more
responsible in managing their money. But the problem is how they will
manage their money.

It is believed that the most difficult part of being a senior high school
student is separating their wants from their needs. In this study, the research

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is to find answers from the respondents as to how and where they spend their
money every day. Budget as the main subject of this study will focus on the
proper allocation of allowances of every student in order for them to properly
utilize their daily, weekly or even monthly allowances.

As students are not in the same economic category as their peers, they
have limited amounts of money. The students are usually less capable to
save money than their peers since they are still dependent on their parents
and cannot make much money on their own. This can be seen through the
fact that most of them do not have savings accounts or credit cards because
they cannot afford to buy anything that is not needed.

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 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Student budgeting as stated by (Stollak, M.J. et al.) women are much

better planners and budgeters than males. In fact, as women mature and
become more experienced, they become better at budgeting and planning. As
a result, the students could start examining how it can better inculcate the
younger male population.

According to Kholilah and Iramani (2013; as cited in Herdijiono &

Damanik, 2016: 228), financial behavior is an individual’s ability to organize,
plan, budgeting, checking, managing, controlling, searching and saving their
finances daily to fulfill their needs in accordance with the level of income
earned. In addition, financial behavior is related to how individuals treat,
manage and use financial resources and tend to be responsibly effective in
spending the money they have.

Spending Behavior

According to D’Silva (2008), spending behavior of students today is

fairly not quite the same as before. He claimed that students are getting more
consumerism consistently. Studies have shown different factors that can
affect the spending behavior of individuals, and these include demographic
factors (Levenson, 2014), age, sex, ethnicity (Villanueva, 2014), qualities and
learning or education (Norvilitis et al., 2006).

Sex and Spending Behavior

In a study conducted by Hayhoe et al. (2000 as cited in Villanueva,

2017), females were found to spend more on appearance goods like clothing
compared to males. This finding was supported by Robert (2000 as cited in
Villanueva, 2017), who found out that females are more likely to exhibit
spending behaviors, particularly compulsive buying compared to men.

It was also supported by De Guzman (2011), who found out that

female students tend to spend huge amount of money on food and art
materials while males have different kinds of priorities. Male students also
spend more on recreation and females spend more on books and school
supplies.

Socioeconomic Status and Spending Behavior

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 The spending behavior of students in our modern times has become an
important concern in our society. Tew (2012) showed that socioeconomic
status influences the spending behavior of students. Higher-status students
spend more on food products, while lower-status students spend much more
on non-food products.

Koc and Ceylan (2012) stated that consumers in lower status groups
spend a larger portion of their income on food products. He added that the
highest status consumers always check the price labels of the food products
with a high percentage before purchasing.

Year Level and Spending Behavior

According to a research of Westwood College in US (2009) most of the

seniors and college students budget the last of their allowance for
transportation, books and supplies but 40% on optional activities
entertainment, apparel and services, travel and vacation.

Stollak (2010) stated that freshmen were far more likely to spend their
money than juniors and seniors. This might be due to lack of awareness of
their budget or not planning appropriately. On the contrary, Bailey et. al(2009)
said that juniors and seniors spent significantly quite freshmen and
sophomores on recreation, food, general merchandise and miscellaneous
items.

Meanwhile, Villanueva (2017) claimed that in his study that, freshmen

and senior students exhibit higher spending behaviors while sophomores and
juniors exhibit less spending.

Strand and Spending Behavior

Financial Education has been shown to be effective for behavioral

change, with some researchers disagreeing that it did not have an impact on
behavior. Burden et al. (2008) found that financial seminars had a positive
effect on behavior, while Mandell and Klein (2009) disagreed that those who
took management course assessed themselves that there is no great impact

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on their financial behavior rather, they didn’t appear as more financial literate
than those who did not took the course.

There are several issues with measuring the impact of financial

education in this way. Data is often limited to a single source such as pre-test
or post-test, which is inadequate when comparing data before and after
intervention (Lynos et al., 2009). Additionally, some surveys use data from a
single source such as a pre-test or post-test, which is inadequate in data
comparison in pre or post intervention (Lynos et al., 2009).

Framework of the study

The Social Cognitive Theory is a model that explains how human

functioning can be explained by a triadic interaction of behavior, personal and
environmental factors. This theory is useful in analyzing and interpreting the
difference of profile variables (sex, course, year level, socioeconomic status,
and ethnicity) of the respondents and their spending behavior.

The Social Cognitive Theory was first proposed by Albert Bandura

(1977). It suggests that humans are driven not by inner forces but by external
factors. This model suggests that human functioning is often explained by a
triadic interaction of behavior, personal and environmental factors.

Transportation
Sex
Expenses

Year level Personal

Needs
Strand Spending Behavior
Economic Food
status
Academic
Purposes

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Figure 1.An illustration of the factors related to the spending behavior of the
respondents.

Albert Bandura (1977) introduced the Social Cognitive Theory. This

theory states that the way humans function can be explained by triadic
interaction of behavior, personal factors, and environmental factors. The
researchers used the triadic interaction of behavior, personal and
environmental factors to explain spending behavior. This can be seen in the
figure above. The researchers used the following variables: personal needs,
academic purposes, food and transportation, and personal factors such as
sex, and year level.

Scope and Delimitation of the study

This research study was limited and conducted only at the Bato
National High School at the School Year 2022-2023. The respondents of the
study are the Senior High School students. The target respondents will be to
fifty (50) students who have different strands.

The researchers have planned to use Stratified sampling in Senior

High School students. The method the researchers will use in collecting
information will be through survey. The research instrument that will be used
to gather data were like-heart questionnaire that consist of ten (10) questions
and objectively made to gather necessary information regarding the students’
Spending and Saving Behavior. This is used to evaluate and estimate the
amount of money students spend every day and what they spend their money
on. The identity of the students will be remained confidential in this study for
their individual safety.

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Statement of the Problem

The purpose of this study is to find out how Senior High School
students of Bato National High School manage their daily allowance by
conducting a survey.

It aims to answer the following research question:

1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of:

a. Sex
b. Strand
c. Year level
d. Socioeconomic Status

2. What percentage of the respondents’ allowance is spent for:

a. Personal needs
b. Academic purposes
c. Food
d. Transportation

3. Is there a significant difference in spending behavior when grouped

according to profile variables?

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RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE

I. PERSONAL DATA AND INFORMATION

Name: ____________________________ Grade level: _______

Strand: ________________________ Gender: Male Female

Socioeconomic Status: Low Middle High

II. This questionnaire is a series of statements that are relate on how you
manage your finances. Read each statement carefully. There is no right or
wrong answers. Please answer the following questions honestly by putting a
check mark on the parenthesis that corresponds to your answer and by filling
out the blanks.

1. How much is your daily allowance?

( ) Php 20 – 50
( ) Php 51 – 100
( ) Php 101 – 150
( ) Php 151 – above

2. What percentage of your allowance is spent for:

A. Personal needs _________
B. Food _________
C. Academic Purposes _________
D. Transportation _________

III. SPENDING BEHAVIOR

Direction: Please indicate to what extent you agree or disagree with each of
the following statements by putting a check below the number that
corresponds to your answer.
(5- Strongly Agree, 4- Agree, 3- Neutral, 2- Disagree, 1- Strongly
Disagree)
A. Personal Needs 5 4 3 2 1
1. I compare prices when I buy clothes,
shoes and cosmetics.
2. I spend my money on latest fashion
design for clothes, shoes, and bags.
3. I prefer higher end personal items
that are more expensive than the
regular ones.
B. Food 5 4 3 2 1

1. I compare prices when I spend

money foods.

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2. I don’t hesitate to spend my money
when it comes to food.
3. I usually eat on restaurants,
carinderia or fast food chains for my
breakfast.
4. I usually eat on restaurants,
carinderia or fast food chains for my
lunch.
5. I usually eat on restaurants,
carinderia or fast food chains for my
dinner.
6. I prefer eating in our house, boarding
house or apartment.
C. Academic Purposes 5 4 3 2 1
1. I compare prices when I spend for
school supplies.
2. I don’t hesitate to spend my money
when it comes to academic purposes
3. I prefer to buy school supplies from
known/popular bookstores rather than
ordinary stores.
4. I spend my money on computer
shops when doing my requirements.
5. I spend my money on cellphone
loads for playing.
D. Transportation 5 4 3 2 1
1. I spend a portion of my money for
gas consumption because I have my
own service vehicle.
2. I prefer walking rather than taking a
tricycle when I go to a nearby place.
3. I usually pay twice the regular fare or
full capacity for my transportation.
4. I do not spend a portion of my
money/allowance for transportation
because we have our own means of
transportation.

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