The days of spending for the fun of it are long gone and as nearly half of our nation (47%) become spendthrifty, saving £92 a month – it’s clear to see the penny has finally dropped (pun, fully intended 😉 )

According to National Savings and Investments (NS&I), these figures indicate the highest level of consumer saving for almost five years.

As the recession has taken full effect, keeping up with the Jones’s has suddenly become less important and people are now taking on a clear approach to budgeting.

I have previously expressed in my blogs, a worry that people were struggling to save even the smallest amounts as they did their best to make ends meet until the end of each month.  So with this in mind, the news by NS&I indicates a significant change in attitude between ourselves and our money – enabling some thought to be given to building for a better future and one free of debt.

Dax Harkins, Senior savings strategist at NS&I commented: “Many of us are cutting back on unnecessary spending and instead are putting a priority on saving, as saving for an emergency continues to be the number one reason for putting money aside.”

It seems, this has been the wake up call we’ve been waiting for; As people realise the recession is here to stay for some time, they are finally making adjustments to their lifestyle to cope with the long term implications of “the crunch”.  As tools such as ClearCash and it’s accompanying BudgetMaster are released onto the market, saving and effective budgeting is going to become even more common practice by all.