Common Cents

Common Cents is a financial literacy program focused on  helping low-wage workers to make better choices in how they spend their hard earned money.  Recently the facilitated class was offered to a small company in Memphis and immediately the owner, saw his hourly employees keeping track of their receipts so they could actually see how much money they spent on things outside of their household expenses.  To some this may seem like a "common sense" thing to do, but with the invention of credit cards, debit card, etc., purchases are often made with little consideration of how it affects the user's ability to meet essential  obligations (rent, utilities, food for the family, etc.).

One of the Common Cents participants, Ricco saw this quickly, when he added up his first set of weekly receipts and saw that he spend over $50 for  sodas, chips, cookies and other non-essential items in one week.  That $50 could have been used to pay for gas to get him to work each week.  So now, thanks to your support of the RISE Common Cents Program, Ricco is watching what he spends by setting up a  budget that will allow him  to spend no more than $5 each week for items that he can actually do without or bring from home.

Thanks to all who support the RISE Common Cents program and remember, it brings a little" Common Sense" back to money management for folks who really need it like Ricco!  Remember with a small contributions to RISE, it will make the difference in the life of one person who really needs it to make their earnings  stretch to meet the needs of their family!