Budgets are popular as economy slows, PayPal claims
Around 78 per cent of Britons are now on a budget, due to the rising prices and tightening credit conditions of the current economic downturn.According to new research from PayPal, these attempts at keeping a spending plan have not been entirely successful - despite eight per cent being so keen that they revise theirs every day.A total of half the budgeters admit to finding sticking to their expenditure limits "stressful", while six in ten risk breaking their plans due to only including essential spending on them.Worse still, 20 per cent are using credit or savings to make ends meet, having broken their budgets.Carl Scheible, managing director of PayPal UK, commented: "British households have seen their financial commitments change significantly over the last 12 months and with energy prices soaring, mortgage payments still high and the cost of food increasing at a record pace it is encouraging to see people reacting to this by trying to keep their financial 'house' in better order. "However, as our research shows, setting a budget and then sticking to it are two very different things. It's concerning that so many people claim to keep to their budget, yet still rely on credit cards or savings for basic living costs."He added: "The consequences of this kind of strategy are soaring credit card bills and no savings to fall back on, which is dangerous territory."
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