What price happiness? £10,000 a year apparently

Happiness costs us over £496 billion per year, according to research from Abbey Current Accounts. The average Brit spends £10,801 per year on leisure pursuits including holidays, gadgets, beauty, hobbies and socialising - which equates to around £29 per day.

Interestingly, the average Brit spends more on beauty (£478 per year) than they do on sports and hobbies (£410) but the biggest spending goes on holidays (£3,764), home improvements (£1,783) and eating out and socialising (£1,295)

Activity - Average spend per year

Holidays £3,764
Home improvements £1,783
Eating out/ socializing £1,295
Fashion £1,146
Travel (excl commuting) £1,090
Beauty £478
Gadgets/dvds/ music £466
Sports/hobbies £410
Cinema/theatre/events/attractions £369
Total spend on happiness per year £10,801

Abbey’s research also shows that we value our leisure time over and above anything else, as most people would have to be paid almost twice the amount they usually earn to give up one hour of their leisure time.

When asked how much people would need to be paid per hour to work on their day off, the average response was £19.21 (this is almost twice the average hourly wage in the UK).

Interestingly, while most people will not sacrifice leisure time for paid work, 38 per cent - over 9.5 million Britons - have worked on their day off within the last year without extra pay.

Steve Shore, Head of Banking at Abbey, said: “Happiness certainly doesn’t come cheap. With the average Brit spending almost half of their annual wage on pursuits that make them happy, we place a high value on our leisure time.

“We’re currently offering new customers switching to an Abbey current account 8% on balances up to £2,500 for one year. Customers can earn up to £200, which will go some way to making them even happier this summer!.”