Here is a past paper question related to this topic (in italics below). You should try to answer both parts for this syllabus objective.

4 It is stated that the richest households in a country spend under 15 % of their income on food while the poorest households spend over 30 %.

(a) Do these figures mean that the actual amount spent on food by the richest households is lower than that spent by the poorest households? Explain your answer. [4]

As a way into this question, discuss it with others in a group if possible, and the try to draw a picture to illustrate your answer without any words.

(b) Daniel recently finished training to be a dentist and started his first job. Samira works in a bank and is now in a senior position. Describe how the expenditure pattern of these two people might be different. [6] (May 2008)

image

To help with part b) try this activity …

Complete, as an individual or in a group, one of the columns on this spreadsheet. Use both research and common sense. Your answers are not supposed to be real because these are not real people, but they should be realistic.

Opengecko Expenditure Patterns and Socioeconomic Profiles Compared across 4 People

(This is a Google Spreadsheet – you should either download it as another file format or make a copy so that you can edit the spreadsheet online).