Mrs. Mary Linda Moore at the That's Life Booth

Mrs. Mary Linda Moore with the Mississippi Extension Office recently brought The Real World to the ACTC campus.  The Real World is a hands-on budgeting activity that Mrs. Skylar Mincey's Business and Marketing students use as part of their personal finance curriculum, but since household budgeting is one of our most essential life skills, the activity was opened to the entire center.  At the beginning of the activity, students got a handout that gave them a snapshot of their monthly income, family size, and a register to add credits and deduct expenses.  The goal for students was to end the month with money in their accounts.  Several instructors helped to run ten booths that represented many of the basic household expenses such as: housing, transportation, groceries, child care, with holding, clothing, entertainment, etc.  There was even a booth called "That's Life" where students drew a card out of a fish bowl to see if they got extra money from something like a tax rebate or had to pay for an unexpected expense. As students went to each booth, they made choices based on their needs/wants and deducted the amount of the expense from their checking account.