Hard-up Britons ‘looking for free activities’

Britons are seeking to stretch their budgets further by focusing on free activities rather than ones that cost them money, according to a new survey.

PruHealth found that 27 per cent of people opt for free forms of exercise such as walking, up from 14 per cent in 2008.

This choice may provide a good alternative to exercising in a gym, which may guarantee a warm and dry environment but also cost plenty of money.

This could be one of many ways in which consumers can reduce their debts by cutting down on unnecessary spending and using the spare cash to pay off what they owe.

Yvonne Goodwin, managing director of Yvonne Goodwin Wealth Management, recently said indebted consumers should write down their whole monthly expenditure on a sheet of paper and then work out what they can do without.

However, she argued that some people are "burying their heads in the sand", rather than facing up to their problems.

By James Francis