Household Budget
Money moves the World
On Wednesday, 27th November 2013, 10th grade pupils of the Marienschule Lingen went into the town center of Lingen in order to ask people about their opinion on „money and consumption “.
The young people interviewed approximately 220 people of all age groups between 20 and over 60 years. They wanted to find out how these people deal with their money.
In the course of the debt prevention project “Krötenwerkstatt” organized by the SKM Lingen and during 4 lessons, the pupils had developed a questionnaire consisting of 12 questions.
The first question “Does money play an important role in your life?” was answered with yes by a vast majority.
More than three-fourth of the respondents stated that it had already happened that they had bought something and later regretted it. It is noticeable that the female respondents had a better overview of their finances than the male had.
Apart from the 40 – 50-year-old men, most of the respondents knew how much money they had on them at that moment.
The respondents’ answers to the question „Would you lend a higher amount of money to a friend or an acquaintance? “ were balanced: Approximately 50% answered with “yes”. It is remarkable that the women older than 60 answered with “no” due to some bad experience in the past.
The majority of the 20-40 year old women have already taken out a loan for a larger purchase. The other respondents said they never had taken a loan so far.
The larger part of the interviewed people would not give a private financial endorsement for family members or friends ; with the exception of the men over 40 years old.
More than 50% of the interviewed people do not consider buying Christmas presents a burden. But there were big differences regarding the amount they are willing to spend on them: Some said they would spend about € 50-100, others, however, are ready to spend € 300-500.
Younger people use to pay by credit cards quite often while older people prefer to pay cash. The majority stated that they always look for discounts and good deals. Around 90% of the respondents answered with “no” to the last question: “Would you buy an expensive product on hire-purchase?”
The pupils found this project very interesting. They could gain some good experience on how to deal with money in a good way. They were surprised by the fact that it took so many people a lot of time to answer the questions. Furthermore, they were pleasantly surprised that many of the respondents deal well with their money and that they would not entrust it to everyone.
