Household economy study

Madrid, 9 September, 2015. 46% of households acknowledge that they are going through economic difficulties, as demonstrated by data from a study on family finances conducted by OCU. The results are published in the September Dinero y Derechos (Money and Rights) magazine.

OCU points out that the economic situation of families has deteriorated sharply when compared with figures from five years ago when only 13% of families admitted to difficulties in making ends meet. Unemployment and wage cuts are the two most obvious reasons for this situation and 20% of households recognise that their costs have even increased despite losing purchasing power.

Economic difficulties do not affect all families equally, the percentage varies by type of household. 43% of couples with children and a single income admit to economic problems. They are followed by pensioners living alone, with 28% in difficulties. Almost one in four couples with children and two incomes recognise problems. Finally 19% of pensioner couples and dual income couples with no children admit to having economic problems.

The consequences of the imbalance between what families need to live on and their real income are varied. More than a third of families admit that sometimes they reach the end of the month with no money in their accounts. Half have been forced in the past year to resort to their credit card because they didn’t have enough money in their account. Overdrafts on current accounts are not unusual, it happened to one in four Spaniards last year.

The situation is even worse for 32% of households that missed making a payment at least once during the past year. 20% made a late payment on their mortgage or taxes. The consequence of this delay is that they have to pay interest on the arrears and other extra costs that make the problem worse.

Repeated defaults mean that 6% of the families in the survey are on a list of defaulting debtors. Another 6% acknowledge having been in this situation at some point in the past.

Economic problems also have a major effect on family life. In 86% of households in difficulty this causes arguments and in 69% the arguments are frequent. Lack of money is the main reason for over half of the arguments.

Managing the family budget is women's business

According to the OCU study, in 55% of households it is mainly women who are responsible for managing the daily expenses. In 39% of households this task is shared and only in five out of every hundred households do men deal exclusively with managing the family finances. For major purchases the usual thing is to take decisions alternately or together.

Among the most common practices in domestic management is to reserve a share of the household income for exceptional costs, 56% of respondents do this. Half of them put something aside reserved only for these exceptional expenses. 28% use the twice yearly extra salary payments for these one-off costs, 27% use savings and 23% spread out as much as possible these exceptional expenses.

Most households have a current or savings account and the most common practice is to check the balance at least once a week. However, it is much less common keep cash at home. Two thirds of respondents say they never keep more than € 200 in cash and only 8% keep more than € 500.

OCU explains that 87% of families keeps track of their income and expenses, but mostly just to keep an eye on the movements in their account, check their balance or make notes in a notebook. Only 16% of respondents manage their accounts on their computer using some kind of tool, mainly spreadsheets.

To help consumers plan their expenses and manage their domestic economy, OCU has launched the mooverang application available for smartphones or accessible via the web which allows you to add together accounts and credit cards, categorise expenses and establish budgets that allow consumers to save money in difficult times like these.

Finally OCU points out that even though 82% of Spaniards consider themselves to be savers rather than spenders, 46% cannot save anything at all due to their economic problems, and 12% are unable to save more than 1,000 euros a year.


For more information (media): Eva Jimenez Tel .: 91 722 60 61 - ejimenez@ocu.org www.ocu.org