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4 Oct, 2013

Heritage Bank Survey: How Far Australians Go To Save a Dollar in 2013

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(PRWEB) October 04, 2013 – Heritage Bank today released surprising results about our nation when it comes to how far people will go to save a dollar in 2013. The research was conducted as part of the Bank’s Number 1 for Value campaign, being rolled out across Queensland this month.

Research covered a number of areas from whether people were honest at the self check-out to how far they would go out of their way to avoid paying ATM fees.

While over 47% of people admitted to turning off the air conditioning in their car to save fuel, some people even put as little fuel as possible in their car to make it lighter, thus using less fuel to get around.

Heritage Bank CEO Mr. John Minz said research was undertaken to help the Bank understand the lengths people will go to save money.

“As Australia’s biggest customer-owned bank we’re always looking for ways to help people save money so we were really interested to find out what people are already doing to achieve this,” Mr. Minz said.

“What we found is that Australians love saving a dollar, and in some cases, go to great lengths to do this.”

“We found some interesting insights into the saving behaviour of Australians, which included ways we wouldn’t necessarily recommend to others.”

The research targeted both males and females from a range of occupations and locations, Australia wide. A total of 1,485 people were surveyed. See below for a list of highlights taken from the research, including some tactics Australians are taking (or resorting to) to save money.

Heritage Bank research found:

  •     Over 64% of Australians have no problems haggling to get a better price;
  •     Over 68% of people pocket the toiletry items offered at hotels;
  •     Over 52% of people will take their own snacks to the movies to save money;
  •     30% of Australians will share a meal rather than buying two;
  •     12% of Australians scan Truss tomatoes as normal tomatoes at the self-checkout;
  •     69% of people go up to 2kms out of their way to avoid paying ATM fees;
  •     Over 84% of people will wait for an item to come on sale, rather than buying it when they want it;
  •     Over 23% of people make their teabags go further by reusing it throughout the day;
  •     Over 67% of Australian household freezers are stocked with meat bought on sale or in bulk;
  •     32% of Australians are not doing enough research when getting the best rates from banks;
  •     13% of people have offered to collect cab money in the hope there will be enough so they don’t have to put in;
  •     32% of people will fill their soap dispenser with water to make it go further.

Other money-saving tactics Australians admitted to include:

  •     Buying peaches and put them through the self-checkout as carrots;
  •     Using candle power at night;
  •     Grocery shopping late in the day when products have been marked down;
  •     Re-using stamps if they have not been post-marked;
  •     Never buying fruit, waiting until work provides fruit and pocketing it then;
  •     Always carrying a bottle of water to avoid paying ridiculous prices at events;
  •     Taking the bus between 9am and 3pm to avoid or reduce fares;
  •     Never driving with a full tank – if it weighs less it’ll use less petrol, thus lower fuel consumption;
  •     Showering with somebody else to save water (and money);
  •     Always detour via parking meters on Saturday & Sunday mornings as people often drop & can’t find coins in the dark on Friday and Saturday nights near parking meters. Then pocketing what you’ve found;
  •     Filling up bottles of hot water at the gym to take home to use for washing dishes;
  •     In winter, cooking lots of roasts so the oven cooks dinner and heats the house at the same time;
  •     Re-using a plastic iced coffee bottle by making your own iced coffee before going out for the day;
  •     Putting ends of soap into another container to use for wet shaving rather than using shaving gel;
  •     Using old work uniforms for gardening or painting;
  •     Putting a tub in shower, collecting the water and using it firstly for washing clothes then watering the garden;
  •     Saving the sauce from McDonalds;
  •     Turning off the car if waiting at the lights for a while;
  •     If there is no traffic, go through red lights to save fuel.