Trading meals out for house cleaning: The expenses we won’t quit

Australian households are open to cutting spending on coffee and restaurants to balance their budgets but are working hard to preserve expenditure related to children, pets, insurance and services such as house cleaning.

Data from an NAB consumer sentiment survey released on Monday shows people are continuing to make spending trade-offs in the face of rising grocery, energy and mortgage costs.

The bank asked about 2000 consumers where they had cut spending in the three months to June, revealing more than half (55 per cent) were willing to curb eating out at restaurants or buying takeaway meals. Forty-five per cent were willing to reduce the number of car trips to save on petrol, while half had reduced “micro-treats” such as coffees or lunches out.

However, they were more reluctant to cut other regular household expenses. Only one in 10 considered cutting spending on private school fees and children’s sports and hobbies.

Households were also much less likely to axe spending on pets, with 18 per cent of survey respondents reporting they had made cuts in this area. Just over 20 per cent were willing to cut back on insurance and outsourced home services such as cleaning.

NAB’s data suggests households making cuts to eating out, micro treats, entertainment and petrol were trimming an average of $286 a month from their spending.

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“[This] means they can still spend on those things that really matter – for some people it’s the family pet and for others it’s getting extra help around the home,” NAB’s head of everyday banking, Claire Righetti, said.

A slew of recent consumer confidence and economic data suggests that while economic conditions are softening, a spending slowdown is not happening across the board. While shoppers might be changing their behaviour to adapt to rising living costs, data suggests they are still spending in line with their values.