How do we spend our money?

At the end of October 2012, the Spanish National Institute of Statistics published the Survey of family budget 2011 to check how Spaniards spend their money. This report concludes that the average household expenditure in 2011 amounted to 29,482 € --that is, 1% less than in 2010. The rent item shows the greatest increase, whereas car purchase has been reduced a lot.
But beyond these conclusions, this survey helps us understand our set of values and how we do spend our little money: Spanish households spend 272 € every year in press, books and stationery, standing for 0.9% of our family budget, whereas we spend 894 € in phone services, which represents 3% of our budget. Education represents 1.1 % (311 €), which is less than our budget for shoes (382 €, 1.3%). Medication, pharmaceutical products and other health material represents 1.3% of our expenditure (374 €), which is less than our expenditure in tobacco (436 €, 1.5%). And finally, flowers, pets and other leisure items or equipment stand for 1% (386 €) and jewellery stands for 0.7% (207 €), more or less like our expenditure in press and books.
How does the financial crisis affect our consumption? If we take a look at the family budget of 2006, we’ll realise that the item “press and books” has been reduced in 20.5%, but tobacco has increased in 11.4%.

Sources:

1. The Spanish National Institute of Statistics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instituto_Nacional_de_Estad%C3%ADstica_%28Spain%29
2. Survey of family budgets 2011: http://www.ine.es/en/prensa/epf_prensa_en.htm