How will you invest your resources?

This activity is a great way to explain the tough choices low-income families are forced to make every day.

INSTRUCTIONS

• Make copies of the “game sheet.” Participants can work in teams of 2 or 3.
• Provide each group with 15 candies (Smarties work well because there are 15 in each roll).
• Tell each participant or team their candies will become symbolic of their “budget” and not to eat their candies until the end of the game!
• Explain that for the purposes of the game each person or team is to pretend they’re married with 2 children.
• One adult in the household is working full-time and the other is working two part-time jobs. Both make minimum wage.
• The family has a limited budget and only 15 candies to spend.
• They have some tough decisions to make.
• Each participant must study their choices in each row and invest their candies with 1, 2 or 3 candies depending on what’s most important to them.
• They cannot skip a row.
• After they’re done making their choices, ask the group how it felt to invest their candies. (Usually the response is, “There weren’t enough candies!”)