What are costs?

Costs are what you give up to get something you want.

Imagine you have a piggy bank full of coins. If you want to buy a toy, you need to take some coins out of the piggy bank and give them to the store. Those coins you gave away are costs, they’re what you used to get the toy.

Think about your favorite snack. Maybe it's chocolate. If you want more chocolate, you have to use up some of your allowance or save money from your piggy bank. That’s a cost too! It’s like trading one thing (your savings) for another (more chocolate).

Sometimes costs are big, like when you buy something expensive with lots of coins. Other times, they’re small, like when you use just one coin to get a tiny candy.

Costs are all around us, and they help us decide what’s worth getting and what’s not.