The Reality Store - WXOW News 19 La Crosse, WI – News, Weather and Sports |

LA CROSSE, Wisconsin (WXOW) - Nearly 300 students from La Crosse Central and Logan High Schools participated in what's called "The Reality Store." The event is designed to help students learn how to make decisions they will be faced with when entering the workforce.

Students had to prepare for the event. They did some research and chose an occupation, they practiced balancing a checkbook, and prepared a budget. Students also had to make a couple of stops to a place called the Fate Booth. That's where unexpected events could change their plans and cut into their budgets.

Senior, Violet Weibel said, "I think there's a lot of smaller things in the budget that students forget about or things that come up like child care or just things that we haven't thought about yet. Just little things like that can really make a dent in your budget. You don't realize how much it really costs until you actually have to pay for it."

Violet made a stop at the Fate Booth to find out that she had to find 200 dollars for a computer repair that wasn't originally in her budget.