By Daniel Hunter
Research by budgeting account provider thinkmoney suggests that 11.1% of overdraft users (1.9m people) slip into the red on the first of the month. Overall, 17m people with a current account (36%) make use of an overdraft and by the 16th of the month over half of them are overdrawn.
The research also demonstrates how much our behaviour changes as the month progresses and the money runs low. Straight after payday there's a rush to the supermarket, with 16m (32%) doing a big grocery shop. 7.6m (16%) fill the car up to the brim with fuel, 12% treat themselves to new clothes and 9% go on a 'big night out'.
Splashing out like this just after payday seems to leave people a bit strapped for cash as the month draws on. That's probably why many people limit their spending during the second half of the month. For example:
20m people (42%) put off any non-essential spending
13m (26%) live off the food they already have in their fridge/freezer or cupboards
A quarter of us (24%) avoid going out
16% try and eke out the remaining fuel in the car
Ian Williams from thinkmoney said: "It seems that the excitement of being paid can cause people to dash out and spend, only to run low on funds later in the month - with more than a third of us using an overdraft to get by. A good budget could help many people make it through the month without running out of money or borrowing from their overdraft. The thinkmoney Personal Account has a built-in Money Manager service that budgets for you. It's perfect for people who find budgeting difficult, time consuming or stressful."
OnePoll carried out online interviews with a nationally representative sample of 2,000 UK adults on 02.05.13. Figures have been extrapolated to fit ONS 2013 population projections of 50,371,000 UK adults.
