Are You A Savvy Spender?
Shoppers will waste more than £49,000 in their lifetime on purchases they later regret.
Buying things in a rush and not bothering to shop around means the average person splashes out £68.44 each month on items they don’t need or later wish they hadn’t bought.
That adds up to £736.20 a year or more than £49,687 from the age of 18 – enough to cover a deposit on a home or buy three Mini Coopers.
The research shows that men are generally the worst offenders when it comes to buying items they later wish they hadn’t, parting with more £968 a year or £57,223 over a lifetime. In comparison, women will splash out just £649 annually - £46,239 in a lifetime - on things they wish they hadn’t bought.
And more than a third of respondents said they are most likely to buy something they regret when they are in a hurry and haven’t got time to look around for the best deals or think about value properly.
32% admit they are most likely to make a rash decision and buy something they are unhappy with to cheer themselves up when they feel sad or depressed.
Other reasons for making bad purchase decisions include being tempted in the sales, by money-off vouchers or being pressurized by pushy sales people. And with VAT having gone up to 20% in January, now is the time to think about what we’re spending.
The study of 3,000 respondents by Kodak, revealed that clothes are more likely to leave people regretting their new buy, followed by gadgets and shoes.
And more than a third admit to having been caught out by additional upkeep or running costs of items they have bought purchased.
Petrol (51%) tops the list of most annoying upkeep costs, followed by printer ink (45%), subscriptions for pay-TV or websites (39%) and replacement batteries (32%).
Consumer finance expert, Jasmine Birtles, says: "If you are looking to get the best value and save on unnecessary costs, shopping around is vital.
"Thanks to the internet, it’s now easy to research different brands and products on offer – you just need to be prepared to do the ground work before you hit the shops and you could save hundreds of pounds."
Tagged in Money