This Saturday we are celebrating a Day Without Purchases, whose objective is to reduce overconsumption. Refraining from buying, especially as Christmas approaches, is a difficult thing. But this is an excellent opportunity to look at our spending: do we have control over it? A survey by The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation* shows that as a nation do not stand out in terms of saving, planning, and monitoring our expenses. However, contrary to popular opinion, women are much better at controlling spending.
Women are usually seen as spending much more than men. The survey by The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation "Attitudes of Poles towards Saving" shows that, contrary to popular belief, it is women who oversee household finances and keep control over spending. The study shows that 37% of women surveyed and 27% of men control all household spending. It is the same with planning. Almost half of the women questioned plan larger, regular expenses (associated with holidays, birthdays, vacations, and school supplies) in advance. We can conclude from this that women are more careful and consistent in managing household budgets.
Although with regard to spending money, one can observe large differences between the behavior of men and women, in the context of saving there are no significant differences. The survey "Attitudes of Poles towards Saving" clearly shows that Poles have a problem not only with controlling their spending, but also especially with setting money aside.
Only one in ten of us saves regularly, and also we do not plan our expenses. Moreover, more than half of us spend more than we earn. In this context, the Day Without Purchases is a good opportunity to reflect on our financial future. It is important that there should not only be a one-day event, but that it should contribute to permanent changes in our behavior - says Krzysztof Kaczmar, President of The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation.
The first step in starting saving is to realize how much and on what we spend. It is enough to have a pen and a piece of paper or an online calculator of expenditures, which more and more financial institutions offer. Regularly keeping track of expenditures will help us not only to manage our household budgets, but also to limit the purchase of unnecessary items. Preparing a shopping list before going to the supermarket, cooking at home instead of eating out, and giving up on impulse buying (e.g. coffee or cake in the city, which we can do without) enable us to reduce non-essential spending in a painless way. This in turn will enable us to start saving on a regular basis. Over time, it will turn out that, thanks to small sacrifices, we can afford more.
