MADRID, 12 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
60% of Spaniards have more difficulties than a year ago to make ends meet despite reducing family expenses in three areas: energy, finance, and food and leisure, according to the report ‘Spanish households in the face of inflation in 2022: family spending and savings in the current economic scenario’ prepared by the Home division of Línea Directa Aseguradora.
Navarros (70%), Andalusians (68%) and people from La Rioja (65%) are the ones who say they have more difficulties making ends meet compared to Spain as a whole.
On the contrary, the inhabitants of Castilla y León (51%), Comunidad Valenciana (53%) and País Vasco (54%) present fewer difficulties compared to the national average.
Thus, the rise in energy prices has had a strong impact on the 2022 family budget.
According to the report, 44% of Spaniards say they perceive increases of more than 20% in electricity and gas bills in 2022.
For this reason, almost nine out of ten Spaniards say they have reduced their energy consumption at home in the last year.
For 43% of Spaniards, the way to reduce it has been to limit their consumption to what is essential, while 35% adjust to the cheapest time slots.
Energy efficiency in homes is still a pending task in Spain.
Around 70% of Spaniards do not consider reforming their home to make it more efficient and sustainable, being able to reduce expenses due to the economic cost that it entails.
Despite this, there are already 14% of Spaniards who have installed solar panels in their homes or are planning to do so, and 21% would do so, but they are slowed down by the procedures required to do so.
In the energy block, the study reveals that moving the car less is also a way to save and reduce the carbon footprint in the home.
In this sense, six out of ten Spaniards who own a vehicle are using it less, opting more for public transport and 76% value the free train pass positively, especially the youngest (81%) and 35% of the citizens have requested it or will request it soon.
In the financial bloc, almost 80% of Spaniards say they have to go to their savings at some point to make ends meet, and two out of ten opt for credit payments to do so.
Likewise, only 22% of citizens manage to save each month and a third save less than 100 euros per month.
According to the report, one way to save at home is to change the company of one of the supplies such as the telephone, electricity, bank or insurance looking for cheaper rates.
And it is what half of the Spaniards have done, who claim to change the company of one of their supplies for a matter of price.
Thus, citizens tend to change their telephone or energy company more frequently than their bank or insurance.
In this last section, 27% of Spaniards plan to change their insurer throughout 2023, although half of Spaniards maintain their insurance spending and 13% plan to increase their outlay for more comprehensive policies or products.
The current economic situation has also caused a tightening of the financial conditions that affect the family economy in mortgages.
In this sense, according to the analysis, 23% of Spaniards are thinking of changing their mortgage to a fixed rate for fear of not being able to pay it and seven out of ten do not want to change their current type of mortgage due to the uncertainty of finding themselves in a situation worse than the current one.
In the food and leisure block, more than 65% of Spaniards maintain that they are going to reduce their expenses this Christmas by limiting it to meals and gifts.
This intention is applied not only at the end of this year but also in the forecasts for 2023, since eight out of ten Spaniards state that they will cut their spending on leisure over the next year, mainly on clothing, food and travel.
In addition to reducing leisure, citizens have also been forced to change the composition of the shopping cart. In fact, half of Spaniards say they have changed their shopping basket in the last year.
The way to save has been to replace original brands with private brands (22%), opt for cheaper products such as chicken, pork or frozen fish (13%) or buy less fresh product such as beef and fish (10%) .
