The Monroe County Middle School Family Resource Coordinator reached out to the Monroe County Family and Consumer Science Agent requesting the agent to visit and do a financial education program for the parents/guardians of middle school students who were needing help with financing tips and budgeting ideas. With this information being shared to the parents/guardians, the Family Resource Coordinator hopes that they will pass the financial education along to their children.

Upon visit, the Monroe County Family and Consumer Science Agent presented the program, ‘Where Does your Money Go?” at the Monroe County Middle School. This program includes some objectives such as increasing knowledge of money management practices and establishing money management practices that can help promote financial stability such as learning to track expenses, identifying spending leaks, identifying needs and wants, and developing a spending savings plan. The lesson also included spending savings worksheets, and a budget activity game where each participant is given 20 beans to spend and use on a budget.

The participants who were present for the program, three were parents/guardians of school age students and one was an afterschool staff member. All participants agreed 100 percent that the program helped them to think differently about how to manage their money and to help them to realize that they could have more money if they had made different spending decisions. All participants were able to calculate their spending leaks and would like to work on tracking their expenses, reduce their spending leaks, and put money toward savings.

After the program, one participant expressed interest in using the financial tips and spending savings worksheets to manage and budget finances. After three months, the participant followed up with the Family and Consumer Science Agent reporting that the program was very helpful in finding spending leaks within the participant's budget. The program also offered a new perspective on the amount of money going toward unnecessary items and showed different ways to cut back spending and save money for other allotments.