What’s the difference between a need and a want?
What is a 'need'?
The things that you need include food, clothes and a place to live.
Why are needs important?
They’re important to living a safe, comfortable and happy life.
What is a 'want'?
Wants are those things that are nice to have like a bag of lollies, a skateboard, or gaming console but you don’t really need them for everyday living.
Why are wants important?
Wants are the nice little extra things that can make life super-special.
How do needs and wants work?
The money your family earns is used to pay for your needs first – what you eat, what you wear and where you live.
If there’s some money left over, it can be used to buy some of those things you and your family want.
It’s important to know the difference between what you need and what you want. That way you can make sure your needs always come first.
Sparkie
Tips for Mums and Dads
Here’s a tip for mums and dads to teach your kids about needs and wants.
- Involve your kids with your weekly shopping.
- Let them help compile the shopping list and ask them to divide the items into needs and wants.
- Then they can collect the items at the supermarket to better understand how much things cost and see which are needs and which are wants.
You can also Include a little something they want as a reward for their help.
