Pointless purchases cost Brits £169 billion

Brits have wasted over £169 billion buying big ticket items that they hardly ever use, according to new research from Abbey Savings. The average Brit has made £3,685 worth of ‘pointless purchases’, with clothes, fine china and inappropriate shoes topping the list.

50 per cent of Brits have an expensive item of clothing that they hardly ever wear, with a further 35 per cent owning unworn shoes. Women appear to be the biggest squanderers, with 58 per cent owning unsuitable clothing (compared with 40 per cent of men) and 45 per cent owning uncomfortable shoes (compared with just 23 per cent of men).

However, men appear to outdo women when it comes to gadgets growing dust, with 28 per cent owning a video camera or games console that is hardly ever used (compared with 25 per cent of women).

Filled with the best of intentions, 24 per cent of Brits have bought a piece of exercise equipment that they now hardly ever use, with the average person using their expensive exercise kit just nine times a year. 23 per cent of Brits own a health or beauty gadget that they only use around six times a year and 25 per cent own a bicycle that they hardly ever use (perhaps they should recycle it). Eight per cent of us are members of a gym that we hardly ever visit.

Fine china is used, on average, just four times a year and 19 per cent of Brits have bought cooking equipment that they rarely use.

Reza Attar Zadeh, Head of Savings, Abbey, said: “It seems that the majority of Brits aren’t making their assets work hard enough for them. With 64% of UK adults having bought a big ticket ‘pointless purchase’, we’d recommend that people consider carefully where they are investing their hard earned cash.”

The average amount spent on inappropriate clothes and shoes is £102, with £297 spent on gadgets such as games consoles and video cameras. £167 is squandered on average on exercise equipment and £206 on health and beauty gadgets.

Abbey offers a super range of savings products to help people maximise their cash assets. Abbey’s newly launched Super Monthly Saver offers 10 per cent AER to customers with an existing Abbey bank account, or 7.25 per cent to non Abbey customers. Abbey’s Super ISA and Super Bond offer a tax efficient 8.10 per cent AER when you invest the same amount in the Abbey Guaranteed Growth Plan or another Abbey investment product.