ONE IN TWO BRITS CAN’T AFFORD MONTHLY BILLS

Key findings

• One in two adults has been forced to raid family savings to cover essential monthly bills, to the tune of £430 since January - this is equivalent to their monthly pay cheque falling short by £86 each month.

• In addition, and perhaps more worrying, three in ten adults (30%) are also putting monthly bills on their credit cards – storing up problems for the months ahead when the bills will have to be faced and settled.

• One in ten people (10%) are using credit to pay their council tax bills.

• Older people are digging the deepest into their life savings to keep afloat with everyday living costs.
• On average, the over 50’s have raided £510 from their savings this year specifically to cover essential household bills.

Marc Ames, Spokesperson for Savebuckets.com commented: “For the first time, the majority of UK families are having to raid or borrow money to keep the house going and our research quantifies the impact of cost of living hikes in pounds and pence figures. As one of the UK’s leading money savings websites, we are launching a summer “crunch time” campaign, geared at helping ordinary families survive the credit crunch and economic downturn.”

“As cost of living hikes hit home, many people will start to think about cut backs and the sacrifices they need to make. Our campaign focuses on savvy shopping and helping Brits to become a nation of empowered bargain hunters: If people really shop around for the best deal on everyday items tough choices and sacrifices can be avoided. The average family is currently raiding £86 a month to cover essential bills – an amount of money that can easily be saved by savvy shopping week-in week-out.”

The £86 a month household bills shortfall can be avoided by savings that consumers can make today on a wide range of popular purchases. In fact, looking at the most popular 10 purchases on Savebuckets, consumers could save £738 by shopping around for the best price*.

Top 10 Buys on Savebuckets.com Savebuckets saving (£s)

Sony Vaio media centre 99

Panasonic 32” LCD Television 98

Barbour jacket 94

Nikon digital camera 77

Razor children’s electric scooter 71

Xbox 360 Console 69

iPod 80GB 69

Apple Mac book 60

GUCCI Envy for men 51

Retro family fridge freezer 50

For more information, or to arrange interviews, contact Rosie Dodd / Guy Bellamy or 020 7269 7112 / 7177 (or email: Rosie.dodd@fd.com)

The research was undertaken by YouGov for Savebuckets.com on 4 June 2008 among a GB rep sample of 2,600 people.

To save money and survive the crunch, visit. www.savebuckets.com today.

Further information:

Regular shopping on Savebuckets.com:

Savebuckets.com launched in the UK during 2007 and does the legwork for consumers in shopping around for best prices on millions of items.

Beyond price comparisons and bargain hunting, Savebuckets.com also offers visitors a unique My Price service, where people can set their budget for an item and when it becomes available Savebuckets.com gets in touch.

Notes to Editors:

*Prices change daily. Price differentials accurate as of 19^thJune 2008.

Research was conducted between the 2nd and 4th June 2008 on behalf of Savebuckets.com by YouGov amongst a GB representative samples of 2,600 adults.

Savebuckets.com is a free to use online comparison shopping service, which will helps shoppers to find the product they want at the price they want.

The site currently searches around millions of products from a wide range of shops, including high street brands and lesser known online shopping sites.

Savebuckets.com is the trading name of Save Buckets Limited, a registered company in England and Wales.