Almost every Belgian — 97% — plans to save on their family budget this year, according to a survey by retail chain Aldi. Striking: we mainly want to cut back on energy and our shopping cart, but the pleasures of life remain ignored in our frenzy to save money.
The majority of Belgians (88%) are – it will not surprise you – concerned about their purchasing power. Almost everyone (97%) plans to save this year and almost half intend to do so even more than last year.
To this end, we mainly strive for a lower energy bill (66%) and save on our shopping cart (56%). It is remarkable that we do not save much or not at all on our budget for eating out (35%), for events (25%) or traveling (22%). Our pleasures remain unaffected by our frenzy of saving.
Social pressure
So it is the expenses that brighten up our free time that we apparently do not want to deprive ourselves of. We think we deserve it, especially after we paid attention to the little ones every week while shopping and also turned down our thermostat a degree last winter to reduce our energy bill.
“But there is also social pressure: bachelor nights are expensive, but we participate because we don’t want to be left out. We should be able to sin from time to time by spending a lot of money on our entertainment, but for most people these remain exceptions,” says financial expert Els Lagrou. She advises paying attention to the social aspect of such expenditure, because: “Shared pleasure is double pleasure.”
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