Spending habits

The spending habits of Australians can be defined as the amount that individuals and households spend on goods and services such as food, alcohol, clothing and health care and the frequency at which they do so. The spending habits vary between individuals and are influenced by a number of factors such as employment, salary, age, sex and location.

In 2012 Australian’s spent a total of $642 billion on general living costs according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Of that $642 billion Aussie‘s spent $14.1 billion a year on alcohol versus $1.1 billion a year on tea and coffee and $19.0 billion a year on recreational activities versus $8.3 billion a year on medical.

It highlighted a lot of common spending habits and also our need to curb back on some overindulgent spending.

There are four main types of spending habits:

• Big spender
• Everyday spender
• Occasional spender
• Habitual spender

Depending on which type of spender a person is will depend on how much money they will be able to save in their savings accounts. Of course, you can always change your spending profile by re-assessing your current income and expenditures and finding new ways to cut back on spending and be rewarded with bigger savings.

To assist you in saving more money, have you considered opening up an online savings account? The table to the right lists some great high interest savings accounts available.

Compare savings accounts