M&Ms may have come to the rescue of financial education.

NuMark Credit Union, based in Joliet, Ill. recently hosted a M&M Budgeting Simulation at St. Ann Elementary School in Lansing, Ill. to help teach 6th, 7th and 8th graders the importance of budgeting. 

“One of the best ways to help a child learn is to be engaging,” Linda Krakora, training manager/M&M budgeting facilitator at the $208 million credit union. “Each student sees how quickly a budget gets spent and gets an opportunity to learn first hand an important money management skill.” 

Here's how it works. Every student receives a bag of M&Ms as their paycheck and the responsibility of spending the M&Ms on various goods at different merchants. Each color is linked to a specific category, and each M&M is equal to five dollars. As a way to teach students to buy within their own personal budget the bags of M&Ms are unique, like a paycheck.

After the shopping was completed, students were able to calculate how much money they had saved for the future and while dissussing what they learned they could finally eat their chocolate treats.

“It was great to see a real world interaction brought into the class room,” St. Ann Elementary Principal Bonnie Hall said. “I liked when NuMark started with talking about savings and charity, which most people don't talk about right away.”