£6,000 spent on life's 'essentials'

Households spent an average of almost 6,000 pounds last year on essentials such as haircuts
12 April 2012

British households typically spent £5,850 over the last year on "lifestyle essentials" such as holidays, take-aways and haircuts, a survey has found.

Despite feeling the squeeze from the rising cost of living, LV found that Britons still managed to spend £149 billion on such little luxuries, up £5.7 billion on the previous year.

The research found the "lifestyle essentials" had an overall inflation rate of 3.6% in the 12 months to August 2011, more than the increase in the nation's pay packets of 2.9% over the same period, LV said.

More than three-quarters (77%) of those surveyed are making financial cutbacks to afford the little treats which they deem as important to their lifestyles.

Nearly half (47%) said they were buying cheaper food or food that was not a well-known brand, while a third take their own lunch to work. Just over one in 10 take their coffee or tea to work in a flask.

The LV Lifestyle Inflation Index was constructed by research carried out by the Centre for Economics and Business Research using Office for National Statistics data as well as a survey of more than 2,000 people.

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