← Level 1 – Cashier

10 / 12 ⏱ 20 minutes

Project: pocket money 14 days

Two weeks of income, spending, balance. What you do not write down is as if you did not spend it — and that is a lie.

Fourteen days, one truth a day

This is the first big project of the course. Not a firm. Not riches. 14 balances and words by spending. At the end three sentences: what came, what left, what remains. Plus one thing you would put elsewhere in the envelopes next time.

If you have no pocket money, write zeros and spending a parent pays “for you” as “not from mine”. The project lives. The map lives. A ranking does not.

Filip writes days 1–5. Days 6–10 he forgets. Day 14 he invents a curve. Eliška has 14 rows, two holes “unknown”, a goal +40. Eliška can do a talk with a parent. Filip can do a story. The course takes Eliška.

On day 14 Eliška does not buy a celebration. She has a notebook. That is the celebration. Boring. Right.

💡

If you drop out three days, do not start inventing. Mark a hole, go back to the pocket today, continue. The project has scars. Scars are honest.

The project is a run, not a haul

Project rules: 1) every day a balance, 2) income with a source, 3) spending with a name, 4) holes marked, 5) nothing on the network, 6) a parent holds the lock of purchases.

At the end do not add up like an olympiad. Read the Fridays. Read how much went into later. Read one regret. Regret is data. Data go into Shopper (when you regret a purchase) and into envelopes.

Comparing 14 days with a classmate is a forbidden ranking. A teacher may see that the run exists, not that you have more than Filip. Cover amounts when you show “that it is running”.

A table may add up. A sum is not a certificate. A certificate is that the run exists and that you can do three sentences with no lie.

Eliška wants to shorten it to “it will be fine somehow”. Filip asks what the lesson Project: pocket money 14 days is for, when a table can do a sum. A sum does not count respect, a PIN, a trap or an envelope. The core is: Fourteen balances. Scars may be there. An invented curve may not.

Adults pay the rent. The card, the account and the PIN belong to a parent. A child’s email does not belong here. Pocket-money numbers do not belong on the network. If you break these rules in the lesson “Project: pocket money 14 days”, you know a word, not the course.

Eliška a sum of income 200, spending 160, start 20, end 60. It fits: 20+200−160=60. If it does not, a hole. Filip: end “about 60” with no run. It does not fit the course.

One regret of Eliška’s: day 9 a sticker 40 from later quietly. Next time a sentence out loud. That is the result of the project. Not 60 Kč as a medal.

Practice numbers, not a bank statement. Eliška has 80 Kč in the want envelope. Filip pushes a step this lesson can name. When Eliška uses the core, either it waits for a parent, or it fits the envelope. If not, anger and a hole are left — proof of pressure, not that the lesson is pointless.

⚠️

Do not promise on the network a “14-day challenge, send tips”. Scams and pressure will come. The project is home and school, not influencing.

Why this right now

You are in the course Money with Martin, level Cashier. You can write numbers in a notebook or a table, but the topic is money and decisions, not Excel formulas. The account, the card and the PIN belong to a parent. A child’s email does not belong here. Do not put pocket-money numbers on the network.

This is not the Sheets with Martin course. A table may help, but the mark of success is a decision, not SUM.

You will know this lesson by one sentence: Fourteen balances. Scars may be there. An invented curve may not. When you can say it to a parent or a teacher, you have the core. The rest is practice, not magic.

Without the project Cashier is a dictionary. With the project it is a habit. A talk with a parent needs a habit, not one Friday mood.

If you skip this, the next lesson in level Cashier will stand on fog. Rules on the first page. Today’s balance is day 1 of the project. Fourteen days are running. It is not a test for marks. It is a safety net, so “Project: pocket money 14 days” is not only a heading.

Four things you will build from the course

The course has four small projects. You do not have to do them all at once. Today you add only what this lesson can do.

🪙 Pocket money

A 14-day record: income, spending, balance. What you do not write down is as if you did not spend it — and that is a lie.

This IS the pocket-money project. Finish the run. Do not jump to a trip.

🚌 Class trip

A budget, a reserve, a plan B. A shared till has rules.

The trip can wait. First 14 days of your till.

🎮 Game shop

V-bucks and a loot box are a purchase. A subscription keeps going.

Mark game spending in the run. So you see how often a want knocks.

🧾 Stall / mini-company

Cost, price, profit. Three numbers for the class.

When a stall comes, you will be able to do a run. A mini-company with no run crashes in the head.

Workshop: rules on the first page

Write six project rules. Sign with a name, not a nick on the network. Show a parent.

  1. Six rules from the idea in your own words. Short.

  2. Where the notebook lives 14 days. A signal for writing.

  3. How you will show a teacher the run without publishing amounts (covering, looking together, not a photo into chat).

  4. Start: today’s balance, even if you already have the seven — mark day 1 of the project.

You count with rules and a start. A finished project is only 14 rows. Today a start. Cheating a curve at the end is worse than three holes.

Pocket money: This IS the pocket-money project. Finish the run. Do not jump to a trip. Do not write someone else’s amount, a PIN, an IBAN or “how much a classmate gets” next to it. A rule and a practice number are enough — or an honest zero.

Class trip: The trip can wait. First 14 days of your till. Do not write someone else’s amount, a PIN, an IBAN or “how much a classmate gets” next to it. A rule and a practice number are enough — or an honest zero.

Practice: what can the project carry?

Yes/no. Why.

  1. Three days a hole, then truth. Can it carry? How to mark?

  2. Fill in 14 days the evening before handing in. Can it carry? Why not?

  3. Seven zeros, there is no pocket money. Can it carry? Why yes?

  4. A photo of the notebook into a group chat “for inspiration”. Can it carry? Why not?

Now you 💪

Go through three checks. By each one, tick in your head: do I see it, or not?

  1. I know six project rules.
  2. I can show a run with no ranking on the network.
  3. I know a scar is better than an invented curve.

If something is missing, go back to the steps above. It is not a test for marks. It is a safety net, so you go on with certainty, not with a mess.

Check: Rules on the first page. Today’s balance is day 1 of the project. Fourteen days are running.

What to take from this lesson