Britain in grip of 'shopaholic' epidemic - The Telegraph

chucky

michaels wrote: »

Whereas I find when you have a shower at my parents in Devon you spend hours just trying to rinse all the soap off.

Palmers...

Cleaver

While women spend the most on high street clothes, men have more expensive tastes, spending £570 a year on designer clothing, nearly double the £300 dished out by female shopaholics.

The male shopaholic spends an average of £338 a year on skincare and cosmetics, while their female counterparts spend £191.

What constitutes 'designer' clothing? I'm not particulary frugal, but I don't think I've ever bought an item of 'designer' clothing. I'm pretty sure I spend more than £570 a year on clothes though.

'Skincare and Cosmetics' sounds a bit vague too. Does this include shower gel, toothpaste etc.? Or just skin-creams, hair products and the like?

If you include shower stuff and toothpaste I probably spend more than £338 a year. If you just include hair stuff and skin cream I probably buy a pot of stuff for my hair every couple of months and a new moisturiser every few months. Yearly cost of about £50 I guess? What on earth are men spending £338 a year on?

sss555s

michaels wrote: »

Yep - I currently alternate between these and intro offer cashback (am dong AMEX 5% at the moment as they also have a 6 months 0% on purchases offer) - I tend to spend on each card for about 3 months and then take advantage of the remaining 9 months interest free - my best available savings account currently pays (my wife) 3.15% tax free (have maxed out the LTSB and Santander accounts) which beats offsetting my mortgage as well.

I've maxed out my my LTSB accounts and my cash ISA and i did the A&L deal similar to the Santander a couple of years ago and mortgage is fixed till the end (2 years left)

Can i switch from A&L to Santander still and what is next?

Cleaver

fc123 wrote: »

Which men on this thread wax (all areas), pluck eyebrows, styled haircut (not barbers) and do facial skincare beyond flannel and soap?

Are there really men still out there who think that moisturising is something that is still a bit weird for men? I thought we got past all that in about 1992.

I don't wax as I'm not very hairy (but some areas get a bit of a trim....aaaiiiigggghhht), eyebrows don't need plucking yet but will be done when I get in to my thirties and they start to go mental like all old man's eyebrows seem to do, I get a haircut at a barbers but it's a trendy barbers (my rule with haircuts is that a £5 one will be a butcher job, £30+ for a man's hair cut is just stupid, so a nice, trendy barbers for about £12-15 is best) and I moisturise and take care of my skin.

Cleaver

Last bit from me on this, but if you work in an office I think you'll spend £300 - £500 a year on work stuff alone won't you?

michaels

I think officially you need to have no current account with either for 6 months to be a new customer for incentive and cashback purposes but I know people have had success with these with both the brands at once in the past but with the A&L brand disappearing and the chaos that is the IT merger this may no longer be possible. However there does not seem to be a restriction on having multiple 5% accounts without the switching bonus.

Allegedly LTSB allow up to 3 vantage accounts as well.

sss555s wrote: »

I've maxed out my my LTSB accounts and my cash ISA and i did the A&L deal similar to the Santander a couple of years ago and mortgage is fixed till the end (2 years left)

Can i switch from A&L to Santander still and what is next?

Strings

Cleaver wrote: »

What constitutes 'designer' clothing? I'm not particulary frugal, but I don't think I've ever bought an item of 'designer' clothing. I'm pretty sure I spend more than £570 a year on clothes though.

'Skincare and Cosmetics' sounds a bit vague too. Does this include shower gel, toothpaste etc.? Or just skin-creams, hair products and the like?

If you include shower stuff and toothpaste I probably spend more than £338 a year. If you just include hair stuff and skin cream I probably buy a pot of stuff for my hair every couple of months and a new moisturiser every few months. Yearly cost of about £50 I guess? What on earth are men spending £338 a year on?

The whole report and the research is flawed with errors.
Basically it is a complete load of tosh with no back up

sss555s

michaels wrote: »

I think officially you need to have no current account with either for 6 months to be a new customer for incentive and cashback purposes but I know people have had success with these with both the brands at once in the past but with the A&L brand disappearing and the chaos that is the IT merger this may no longer be possible. However there does not seem to be a restriction on having multiple 5% accounts without the switching bonus.

Allegedly LTSB allow up to 3 vantage accounts as well.

I have 3 vantage accounts.

So is the Santander one the same, deposit £1k per month and receive 5% and have multiple accounts? Shame it's such a low limit.

How many Santander accounts can you have?

BritRael

Strings wrote: »

really, are you really that serious?
Assuming you left home at 20, you've only spent on average less than £20 per year on clothing.

I would hate to see the state of your underwear and work attire

Very serious.

Read the quote my friend; it says designer clothes. The only designer clothes I've ever bought were in Thailand; they were 'Lacoste' tee shirts and sold to me by Georgio Armani. Funny though, he didn't look anything like I had imagined

My 'work attire' is a suit. er...a boiler suit Supplied by the company. My underwear is from M&S, and very clean thank you very much

michaels

Discussion of multiple 5% accounts is over on the forums at stoozing.com

sss555s wrote: »

I have 3 vantage accounts.

So is the Santander one the same, deposit £1k per month and receive 5% and have multiple accounts? Shame it's such a low limit.

How many Santander accounts can you have?