Half of Scottish consumers plan to cut non-essential spending this year, with a third using these savings to help meet energy costs, as the government's bills support payments end in April.
The Energy Bills Support Scheme provided a monthly discount of around £67 from October through to March, but support will now move to being means tested.
Research from KPMG UK also revealed that so far in 2023, 46% of Scots have reduced their non-essential spending, with the cost of utilities bills cited as being their biggest barrier to spending more income or savings on discretionary items in the next three months.
Half of respondents also reported their mobile phone plan was increasing in cost from April, while half also said that their broadband plan price was rising. Only one in 10 said that their price plans for either weren’t increasing.
Linda Ellett, UK head of consumer markets, retail and leisure for KPMG, said: “Buying behaviour also continues to change as shoppers look to lower costs – including switching to discounters, buying more own brand and value produce, and searching out promotional prices.”
When asked about their buying behaviour when shopping so far this year, the 250 Scottish survey respondents said they were:
- Buying more own brand/value: 30%
- Buying more promotion/discount items: 37%
- Spending more time looking for bargains: 32%
- Buying fewer items: 35%
- Switching brands: 26%
- Switching to cheaper retailers: 28%
- Buying from multiple stores: 26%
- Spending more on credit: 9%
A third of consumers surveyed reported using their savings to help meet their essential costs.
Two thirds with savings say they don’t currently need to use savings for this. The average amount of savings in the bank among the group was £7,253.
Among those with savings, 43% are yet to purchase any big ticket items so far this year – with 35% saying they won’t do so in the rest of 2023 either.
Overall feelings of financial security so far in 2023 is largely balanced among consumers – with 28% feeling more secure than when the year began, 28% feeling less secure, and 43% feeling the same as they did when the year began.
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