The credit crunch is forcing us all into budget supermarkets and ordering cheap takeaway meals so we can watch the pennies.

But a high school teacher in the US has come up with a novel way to buoy up the local economy and sate a few appetites at the same time.

Jeb Harrison, who teaches at Idaho High School, cooked up the idea of advertising a pizzeria at the bottom of student handouts, tests and worksheets.

A local pizzeria boxed up a stack of paper with adverts at the bottom and delivered it to the school for it to print tests or handouts on each page.

Harrison’s economics students now find the final question in their class test no longer concerns tax law but instead is a reminder that a 14-inch deep pan pepperoni costs only $5. The real test will be whether they can afford it.