3. Case study: Sarah and Alex

Setting

Group work and plenary session

Objective

To show different forms of lending money using a case study

To show how people slowly grope into debt problems

Duration

75 minutes

Material

For each group, the respective tasks

Annex “The first own apartment”

Annex “The new living room”

Annex “The new car”

Annex “One year later”

Flipchart and pens

Groups of 3 – 4 participants are formed. In 4 rounds they work through the case study step by step. 

Round 1

Each group receives the annex “The first own apartment” (task definition + list of income and expenditure)

You have 20 minutes to make a corresponding statement of costs.

Then the results are briefly discussed. The calculated, freely available monthly budget for each group is written down on the flipchart.

Round 2

Each group receives the annex “The new living room” (tasks and spreadsheet). You answer the questions for yourself and calculate the costs for an installment purchase. After 15 minutes you meet again in the plenum and discuss the individual questions.

In the case study, the two buy the facility in installments. On the flipchart, 106,73 euros are deducted from the freely available budget for all groups.

Round 3

Each group receives the annex “The new car” (tasks and calculation sheet). After they have calculated both variants, they should decide on one option. (15 minutes)

The respective decision is justified in the plenary session and the monthly charge is deducted from the freely available budget. 

Round 4

Each group receives the annex “One year later”. You have 10 minutes to think about how to proceed.

The results are then discussed in plenary.

Finally, 500 euros are deducted from each group on the flipchart. This is the reduction in income. Then each group sees how high their deficit is.

After the discussion of the 4th round, the whole story is briefly discussed again.

  • Is such a story realistic?
  • Do the participants know someone who had a similar experience?

Annex “The first shared apartment”

Annex “The new living room”

Annex “The new car”

Annex “One year later”