Chandra DeRamus

Success Story-Intermediate Outcome

April 11, 2024                                                          

“Positive Impacts from Budgeting Program in Hardin County with Kentucky State University

FCS Extension Agent”

              With the everchanging societal changes within Hardin County there have been some changes in the prices of housing, food, and utility expenses due to the cost of inflation. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the weekly wages in all of Kentucky’s three largest counties were below the national average by $1,332 in the second quarter of 2023. Within one of the more urban areas of the state of Kentucky in Jefferson county, the average weekly wage was $1,284, (113^th) ranked in the top third nationwide. The average weekly wage for Hardin County was $1,013. 

This affects how much income families can utilize to afford the cost of paying for their overall expenses such as rental fees, paying for utilities, and buying groceries for a family of five (two parents and three children all under the age of 13).  The average cost of a family of 5 with 2 working adults is about $16,913 per year housing ($16,913), food costs-($13,322), childcare- ($22,458) and transportation cost –($17,452), medical – ($8,093) and tax cost-($12,017) for a total cost of ($90,255). Based on this costing analysis the two working adults would have to be making a total of ($107,409). This introduces a need for more affordable housing solutions for those job markets that are only offering very limited increases to salaries for individuals and working families. This may lead to an increase in people taking on part-time jobs and also looking for more remote jobs to increase their income to have money to pay their utilities and rising housing costs. 

As a result of the families seeing prices increase and wages remain at a much lower rate, people within Hardin county are starting to see the effects of an increase on the cost of living. In order to address some of the needs of local families and communities several program leaders discussed some ways to reduce the societal stresses by partnering with their local family and consumer science extension agent that works with Kentucky State University to develop a Budgeting program that teaches families some basic budgeting skills and methods that are targeted at identifying methods for audiences to learn techniques on managing their budgets more effectively by identifying strategies to encourage strategies on setting obtainable financial goals and developing a spending plan that can overtime improves buying and spending habits.  

The program does this by teaching adult audiences how to identify their financial goals by doing teaching them these 3 Strategy’s: 1)Identify methods on how to establish monthly expenses, 2)Teaches adults how to develop a budget, 3) introduces them to several money tracking systems such as the envelope system, which makes it easier to set aside monthly payments in one place at one time.  The program also identifies some other tracking methods for keeping track of your spending that is designed to organize and categorize your spending so that you can identify what categories you have and makes it easier to know exactly what is available for your flexible spending. 

Overall, the objective of the  program is to encourage better financial decision making habits and to increase their knowledge of money saving techniques. By doing so this will eventually reach underserved audiences around the county and encourage better decision making when it comes to developing financial goals. 

Here is a summary of some of the program activities:

 Around October 2023-March 2024, a total of 147 program participants participated in an a situational based learning experience called Needs vs. Wants Challenge: Can They Afford It, this simulation takes individuals thru a series of scenarios where they are placed within teams and are presented with a family and an idea to purchase a product that is a luxury good that retails at a higher price and requires that you decide on choosing a credit card to pay for it or use your knowledge of budgeting strategies to determine a more cost-effective strategy for the family to pay for the product. The goal of the challenge is to encourage the audience to apply the strategies that they are learning in a learning environment and it also teaches them how to solve problems as a team. 

 The program participants participated in a series of real-life scenario challenges at least once a month and then at the end were provided with some resources that assisted them with making better buying decisions and also taught them some methods on how to find out what their credit score is and how to prevent identity theft. Furthermore they gained practical knowledge of what a Credit score is and how it can affect their buying power.  

In our final career assessments and evaluation, it was determined that about 95% of the program participants gained a wealth of knowledge in how to develop a budget and how to apply several money saving strategies on how to resolve a financial problem. A small number of the program participants also were provided with some career assessments that guided them in making some long-term career choices to meet their financial goals. By doing this step that small group of participants was able to set goals for careers that match better with their skill set, thus improving the chances that they can improve their chances of being able to apply those same skills on a new job within six months. One of the biggest impacts from the program was that about 95% (139 program participants) stated that after participating in the program they were able to identify the steps on how to write a budget using a basic steps. 

 In conclusion, the goals of the program are that the program participants continue to utilize the strategies that they have learned to make better decisions when it comes to their spending habits.  That can in turn develop into an actual savings fund that can be used for a fun vacation on an excursion at the beach with their family.