ONS spending survey reveals how we really spend our money

The Office for National Statistics spending survey reveals where our money actually goes.

The average household in the UK spent £531.30 a week in 2014, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), £7 more than the year before.

The 2014 Living Costs and Food Survey reveals trends in spending by using 12 classification of individual consumption by purpose (COICOP) – an internationally agreed system for reporting on household expenditure.

What we spend our money on

Here’s the breakdown of what we spend our money on according to the ONS report.

*Doesn’t include mortgage payments

The biggest household expense in 2014 was transport at an average £74.80 a week, up from £70.40 in 2013.

This category accounts for things like rail fares, petrol and car buying. Almost a third of that went on fuel at £22.90 per week.

Households also spent a lot on housing, fuel and power at an average of £72.70 a week. This category covers net rent (£30.70), electricity, gas and other fuels (£25.80), maintenance and repairs (£7), water supply and other charges like refuse collection (£9).

The overal figure does not include spending on mortgage payments and actual rents, but the ONS revealed separately that households with a mortgage were spending around £143.80 a week in 2014 and those that rented spent £90.20. 

After these two important categories, households put a lot of their weekly budget towards recreation and culture, spending £68.80 a week, up £4.40 compared to 2013.

This is a broad category which covers a large range of goods and services. One of the biggest sub-sections is recreational and cultural services, which made up £20.70 a week and covers things like sports admissions and leisure class fees (£6.90), cinema, theatre and museums (£2.80) and TV subscriptions and licenses (£6.70).

Packaged holidays was a big area for spending in this category, working out at £23.10 per week.

Food and non-alcoholic drinks came next, averaging £58.80 a week.

The figures show we spent more on vegetables (£4.20) than on buns, cakes and biscuits (£3.70) or chocolate (£1.90). We also spent more on staples like bread, rice and cereals (£5.40) compared to non-alcoholic drinks (£4.80).

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Big divides

The ONS average figures mask huge disparities between income groups and regions.

The bottom 10% of households spent just £188.50 a week, which went mostly towards housing and food. Meanwhile the highest earning 10% of the population spent a whopping £1,143.40 a week on average, with a lot more going towards cars and holidays. In fact, the most well off spend more per week on furniture and furnishings (£43.40) than the poorest do on food (£30.40).

Another staggering fact is that the most well off spend more per week on wine at £8.70 than the poorest spend on their water bills, at £6.90 per week.

When looking at spending by region, the ONS combines three years of data. Between 2012 and 2014 the average weekly household expenditure was £512.60.

Four regions spent more than this average. London households spent the most each week (£616.30) followed by the South East (£594.80), the East (£540.60) and the South West (£533).

The North East spent the least at £427.40 a week, followed by Wales (£444.50) and Yorkshire and the Humber (£450.60).

Meanwhile rural areas had a higher weekly expenditure (£567.80) compared to urban areas (£498.40) between the same period.

Take the spending quiz!

The ONS survey gives a fascinating breakdown of what our spending priorities are. Take our quiz to see if you are clued up.

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