Different budgets do not have to produce a friendship problem. They do require a planning rule that does not treat the most expensive suggestion as the default and everyone else's limit as an inconvenience.
Whether money comes from family support or paid work, a student may have commitments that the group cannot see. Start with the plan you can agree to, not guesses about who can afford more.
Ask before choosing
Try this suggested organiser message: “Before we pick a place, what total spend is comfortable, including travel? You can message me privately. It is also fine to skip this one.”
Do not forward private answers or identify the person with the lowest ceiling. Ask only what is needed to plan this outing. You are organising a meeting, not collecting financial profiles.
Offer a core and an optional extra
Build the shared part around a clear total and finish point. Anything beyond that should be explicitly optional, with no booking or cost assigned to someone who has not agreed.
An original planning card might read:
We are meeting for: ___
Expected total for the agreed part: ___
Travel each person needs to add: ___
Optional extra: ___
Final confirmation needed by: ___
Use checked prices for an actual plan. “It should be cheap” is too vague to confirm. If the group cannot find a plan that fits everyone, choose another day or accept that some people will join a different occasion.
Leave personal budgets personal
The RBI's FAME material frames budgeting around one's own income and expenses. A friend's spending limit cannot be inferred from the phone they carry or the fact that they were recently paid.
The personal student-budget guide can help individuals decide privately. Nobody needs to share the worksheet with the group.
If someone offers a treat, say clearly whether repayment is expected. Let the recipient decline without being told they are making things awkward.
Make the next invitation easy
Afterwards, invite the person who skipped as you normally would. Avoid a running joke about their limit or asking them to prove their circumstances have changed.
For students aged 18 and over who work, free time differs as well as spending money. Ask which time works before assuming the person can simply take another shift to fund a future outing. Save the agreed plan, and leave everybody's private explanation out of the group note.