YFCS-3/3.1, New Oct 2001. Molly Gregg, Extension 4-H Program Specialist

Why We Buy Project Wants vs Needs

	Protected Under 18 U.S.C. 707

How you spend your money has a big impact on your life. If you've been doing the Why We Buy 4-H project, you know that your feelings about money are influenced by people like your parents and friends and by what you think will make you happy. You also know that people spend money on many different things and that what you buy is determined by your values--your feelings about what is important.

Values help you decide which goals you want to achieve. Setting goals can be important in helping you get things that you want to buy. For example, you might save for something big like a trip or a new video game.

As we get older, our goals will change somewhat. For instance, when you were younger, your goal may have been just to get a new pair of tennis shoes. Now that you are older, your goal may be to get one particular brand or style of shoes, like the newest shoe from Nike or Reebok.

Goals help us plan for the future. To reach our goals we must be able to distinguish between what we want and what we need.

List five things that you need:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

List five things that you want:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

We each need basics such as food, clothing, and shelter. However, we may want something special. For example, we need food but we may want expensive steak, or we need clothing, but we may want trendy jeans. While food and clothes are needs, steak and designer clothes are wants. Based on this new information, try separating your wants and your needs again.

List three things that you need:

1.
2.
3.

List three things that you want:

1.
2.
3.

Are the things you listed really necessary? Give your reasons.

From the items you consider needs, will you be able to survive if you do not have them?

From the items you consider needs, are there ways you could get along without buying them?

From the items you consider wants, why do you want them? Is it because they looked cool in a commercial? Does a friend have one of the items? Do you think one of the items would make you happier?

Can you think of a situation where a want may become a need? (For example, you have been invited to a formal dance, and you do not have the appropriate clothes to wear to it.)

To manage your money well, you must be able to spend your money on your needs before your wants, and you must learn to save money for upcoming expenses. Think about it.

• If your parents had to choose between paying the electric bill and going to the movies, which would they choose and why?
• If your mother had to choose between buying a dress that she really has been wanting and that just went on sale and taking you to the doctor because you have an ear ache, which would she choose and why?
• If you had to choose between buying school supplies and buying a video game, which would you choose and why?
• If you could buy either juice and a sandwich or a soft drink and a candy bar for lunch, which would you choose and why?

More to Do

• Choose something you want to have more than anything else. In your 4-H journal, write

I want _______________. It will cost me _______________. Plan how you will get the money to buy it.

• In your 4-H journal, record how you spend your money for one week. List all items you purchase and activities that cost money. Identify each item or activity as a want or a need. When you have finished, show what you have done to your parents or your 4-H leader.

My Wants and Needs

NEED	WANT	Purchase or Activity
X		Lunch
	X	Movie ticket

• Sit down with your family and develop a family list of wants and needs. Record your family list in your 4-H journal.
• Our culture has changed from one where people grow their own food, build their own homes, and make their own clothing to one where people pay money for all of those things. Make a list in your 4-H journal of the things that early pioneers would have had to buy--things that they could not supply for themselves.
• Why do you think we feel the need to buy things that we don't need for our survival? Write what you think in your 4-H journal.