Jūratė Cvilikienė: what is the price of new jeans?

At a time when the quarantine has limited the possibilities for fun, entertainment, vacations and other leisure activities, we have begun to want even more: we have become a kind of willingness to everything. Suddenly, we start dreaming of things that we had not thought of before. This applies not only to adults, who have greater financial resources, but also to children and adolescents, generations that have grown up with the Internet.

Of course, the desires and dreams of living better are what propel humanity forward. But desires and their fulfillment have more than financial expression. It is especially important to weigh how much desire costs not just money, but the planet as a whole. If I need it more right now, or am not trying to buy joy at the expense of Earth’s limited resources, these are questions that children, with the help of their parents, must ask themselves and try to find an answer.

I want new jeans because the old ones are not happy anymore; those with children have probably heard such an argument more than once. When deciding whether to buy them or not, there is another price to pay for jeans in addition to several tens of euros.

A pair of jeans consumes around 7.6 thousand. liters of water. Apparel manufacturers are estimated to consume about $ 79 billion a year. cubic meters of water: it could fill almost 32 million Olympic swimming pools. In addition, 1.7 million are used to dye clothes. tons of various chemicals. So the question is simple: is it really impossible to do without those new jeans?

The idea of ​​a new or trendy item is often motivated by well-thought-out strategies from sellers. When you come to the store, the focus may be on more expensive items, although being around them is just as good and cheaper, they just aren’t turned on.

Writing nines in the price, the only proposal that is valid today, is the so-called anchoring method, where a higher price is scratched on the label and a lower one is written, all of them are ways of playing with our decisions.

What advice can you give to young people seeking to fulfill their truly worthwhile desires? Here are some tips:

Write down a specific purpose (for example, a new bike);

Find information on how much the desired item costs and compare the price of the item with at least three sellers;

Examine the possibilities of buying a second-hand item, both more economically and sustainably;

Calculate how long it will take to save the estimated amount of pocket money or gifts;

Consult with adults about opportunities to earn extra money;

The most important thing is to try to implement the plan without deviating from the goal.

Jūratė Cvilikienė, Director of the Swedbank Financial Institute in Lithuania, will give a lesson on “(Un) limited resources and opportunities” in 2021. January 21 in the distance education “Economics”. This will be a school day for students in grades 1-12 and their teachers in Lithuania. Lessons for different age groups will be given by more than 20 teachers and experts from different fields, who will talk about creativity, sustainability, finance, economics, citizenship and other important and interesting things.

You can find the event program and streaming link as the event gets closer HERE.