Aussies dipping into savings accounts for mobiles, not petrol

Australian savings accounts may be being dipped into to provide money for more homely items, if a new report is anything to go by.

Research conducted by the Australian showed that households are spending more on their cell phones than their cars.

In addition, people – potentially including those with cheap credit cards – are forking out more on food, electricity, gas and water, in what the news provider describes as spending on things closer to home and demonstrates a shift in consumption patterns.

Fuel for motors is at a low, representing 2.4 per cent of a family’s budget, it stated, while mobile phones pipped it at 2.5 per cent.

"The swings and roundabouts suggest the typical family put off the purchase of a new vehicle in 2008-09 [and] drove their existing car less often," the publication asserted.

Furthermore, people boosted their savings acounts by making home-cooked meals and having nights in "in front of the flatscreen television".

In related news, it was recently reported that the recession prompted people to withdraw some $4 billion from their savings accounts in panic, the Reserve Bank of Australia reported.

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