Cash-strapped Brits say they will shun takeaways and restaurants to make ends meet, a new cost of living poll by Omnisis has revealed.
A massive 74% of people said they will make sacrifices this year – even as inflation fell to 10.1% this week.
Of those who said they’d be making cutbacks, the biggest area impacted will be the hospitality trade as 71% of people targeted takeaway meals and 69% said they’d sacrifice restaurant meals.
Meanwhile, 62% of Brits said they would be reducing energy usage to survive in a week in which British Gas owner Centrica announced its profits had tripled from £948m in 2021 to £3.3bn in 2022.
In addition, the Omnisis poll found 70% of people said they would be worse off in 2023 than in 2022 with only 7% saying they’d be better off. 22% said they would stay the same.
And only 17% of people said their salary would stay in line with inflation with 73% saying their earnings would not keep up.
Of those people cutting back, this is the full breakdown of where they will make sacrifices:
- 71% takeaway food
- 69% eating out in restaurants
- 62% energy use
- 57% leisure activities (cinema, days out, concerts)
- 56% holidays
- 55% clothing
- 49% subscriptions (gym, streaming TV)
- 33% tech (phones, devices)
Brian Cooper, Managing Director of Omnisis, said: “With inflation remaining high and energy firms posting record profits, normal people are telling us they are having to make sacrifices across the board to make ends meet.
“With three quarters of people saying they have to make cutbacks to survive, it looks like the biggest impact will be felt by the already beleaguered hospitality industry.
“All of our latest cost of living findings tie in very closely to our weekly poll which tracks people’s biggest concerns. These show, yet again, that inflation (62%) and the economy (62%) are the issues that make people most worried.”
The poll, conducted on 15th – 16th February 2023, questioned 1,258 people and is weighted to a national representative population. The tables will be published here: https://www.omnisis.co.uk/poll-results
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