Consumers Show Wariness in their Spending Plans

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By USDR

With the first quarter of the calendar year behind us and tax deadlines approaching, many Americans may be putting thought into where their money has gone in the recent past and where it might be going in the near future. While attitudes haven’t changed overwhelmingly since last December, some shifts in plans for the next six months may indicate that Americans are questioning their financial prospects over the next few months; that said, looking further back it’s clear that American financial attitudes are greatly improved from where they were a few years ago.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll® of 2,234 U.S. adults surveyed online between March 12 and 17, 2014. (Full findings, including data tables, available here)

Big ticket spending: holding or folding?
Americans are more likely than in December to say that they plan on decreasing their spending on eating out at restaurants (59%, up 4 points) within the next six months, along with being less likely to say they will save or invest more money within the next six months (52%, down 6 points), that they will have more money to spend the way they want (34%, down 4 points) and that they will buy a new computer (23%, down 5 points) when compared to last December.

Americans’ attitudes are close to or unchanged from December levels in many areas, including the likelihood that they’ll reduce spending on entertainment (54%, down 2 points), take a vacation away from home lasting longer a week (39%, up 1 point), move to a different residence (17%, down 1 point), buy or lease a newly manufactured car, truck or van (15%, down 2 points), purchase a house or condo (holding steady at 8%), start a new business (8%, down 2 points) and buy a boat or recreational vehicle (unchanged at 4%).

Men are more likely than women to report both spending and saving as among their plans for the near future:

Save or invest more money (55% men vs. 49% women).

Take a vacation away from home (42% men vs. 36% women).

Buy a new computer (27% men vs. 20% women).

Buy or lease a newly manufactured car, truck or van (18% men vs. 13% women).

Buy a boat or recreational vehicle (5% men vs. 3% women).

Five year plan
In examining these numbers, it’s also important to broaden our outlook and take stock in how far we’ve come as a country since the lows reached just a few years ago during the depths of the Great Recession. Compared to five years ago (March of 2009), Americans are far less likely to anticipate that the next six months will see them decreasing their spending on eating out at restaurants (59%, down 15 points) and reducing their spending on entertainment (54%, down 20 points) and considerablymore likely to expect that they’ll have more money to spend the way they want (34%, up 13 points).

Small ticket spending over past six months shows little change from December
Looking back at activities done over the past six months to save money, numbers haven’t changed much from December findings. Six in ten Americans (59%, up 1 point) say they have been purchasing more generic brands, just over four in ten (42%, holding steady from December results) say they’ve been brown bagging lunch instead of purchasing it and just over a third each say they’ve been going to the hairdresser less (36%, up 2 points) and that they’ve switched to a refillable water bottle instead of purchasing bottles of water (34%, up 1 point).

There have been some slight increases in cutbacks, with over one-fourth (27%, up 3 points) saying they cancelled one or more magazine subscriptions and nearly two in ten (18%, also up 3 points) saying they’ve cut down on dry cleaning.

Women are more likely than men to report that they’ve been purchasing more generic brands (65% women vs. 52% men) and going to the hairdresser/barber/stylist less often (44% women vs. 28% men), and that they’ve switched to a refillable water bottle (37% women vs. 31% men).

As might be expected, those with children in the household may be feeling the squeeze more than those without, as they are more likely to report several cutbacks over the past six months: