Your Money

CSO urges consumers to monitor their spending for new budget survey

Statistics office wants people to track all their spending over 14 consecutive days to better understand where their money goes

'Collecting your receipts and keeping a spending diary makes it easier to track spending,' said Ger Doolan, a senior statistician with the CSO. Photograph: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Conor Pope
Tue Jan 9 2024 - 09:00

Consumers have been challenged to track their total spending on everything from the weekly grocery shop to the packet of chewing gum bought after filling the car with fuel for a two-week period, to get a better understanding of where their money goes as part of an awareness campaign and enhanced data collection method being launched by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Wednesday.

The Household Budget Survey, which collects data on consumer spending, kicks off this week and will run throughout the year.

About 6,000 households will be randomly selected to take part and each member of the household aged 16 and over will be asked to record the details of their day-to-day spending over 14 consecutive days in a so-called spending notebook, which will be provided to participating households.

The CSO pointed to two key advantages to taking part. It suggested that participating households would get a better sense of where their money is going which, it said, “promotes better spending awareness”.

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The CSO also gets “better data on the types of items being purchased, the percentage of incomes spent on bills or groceries, and changing buying habits”.

The spending data is anonymised and used to measure the cost of living in Ireland.

The details recorded in the notebook also give the statistics office better information on what goods and services should be included in the basket of goods which is used to calculate the consumer price index, which records the general rate of inflation.

The household budget survey was previously collected once every five years, but the need to provide more timely information on how people spend their money means it will now be collected throughout the year.

The change in the collection method, and a planned update in February to the items included in the national basket of goods used to calculate the consumer price index, means the CSO will better understand the impact of inflation and accurately track changing spending habits.

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“While only certain households will be selected for the household budget survey, we would encourage everyone to take note of their daily spending for 14 days to give them greater awareness of where they are spending their money,” said Ger Doolan, a senior statistician with the CSO.

“Collecting your receipts and keeping a spending diary makes it easier to track spending. Previous participants of this survey have told us they get a better sense of their spending habits and, given the impact of inflation on food, heating and other outgoings, the challenge is timely.”

Every item people spend money on needs to be included, such as the big shop at the weekend, utility bills, children’s activities, gym membership, phone and TV costs, as well as the cup of coffee bought at the garage when filling up the car or that impulse buy at the till such as a bar of chocolate or a packet of chewing gum, he said.

The CSO also highlighted what participants in the last household budget survey said about their involvement.

“I knew I was spending almost €20 a day on a pack of cigarettes and a coffee on the way to work but writing it in the diary helped me realise that this amounted to more than €5,000 a year. As a result, I am cutting back and will put the money towards a holiday instead,” one person told researchers.

“Looking at my receipts helped me identify how much junk I was buying, so now I intend to stop all that, to save money and lose weight,” said another.

Conor Pope

Conor Pope

Conor Pope is Consumer Affairs Correspondent, Pricewatch Editor and cohost of the In the News podcast

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