UK average household spending by category

The short version: the average UK household spent £676.60 a week (about £2,932 a month) in the financial year ending March 2025. Housing, fuel and power is the biggest slice at 18%, followed by transport at 14%. The table below maps the official figures onto Myri's spending categories.

When you set up your plan in Myri, each category shows the UK average alongside your own number, so you have a reference point, not a rule. Every figure here is taken directly from the Office for National Statistics' Family Spending in the UK release (Workbook 1, Table A1), the country's official measure of what households actually spend, drawn from the Living Costs and Food Survey.

Average monthly spend by category

Figures are mean weekly household expenditure for all UK households, converted to a monthly figure (× 52 ÷ 12). Some Myri categories combine more than one ONS line — the "what it covers" column lists exactly what's included.

Category	What it covers (ONS)	UK avg / month
Housing	Net rent + mortgage interest + maintenance	£433
Council tax	Council tax & domestic rates	£140
Groceries	Food & non-alcoholic drinks	£319
Transport	Cars, running costs & fares incl. car purchase; ≈£254 without	£418
Bills & utilities	Energy + water + phone & broadband	£309
Insurance	Vehicle + home + medical insurance	£109
Health	Health products & services	£52
Eating out	Restaurant, café & takeaway meals	£150
Shopping	Furniture, appliances & homewares	£176
Clothing	Clothing & footwear	£78
Subscriptions	Streaming, TV & club memberships	£42
Leisure	Recreation & culture (excl. holidays)	£160
Holidays	Package holidays & accommodation	£217
Personal care	Haircuts, beauty & toiletries	£57
Charity	Donations & charitable subscriptions	£13
Savings	Not measured here — see saving ratio below	—

A note on savings

Family Spending measures what households spend, not what they save, so there's no "savings" line. A better benchmark is the ONS household saving ratio, which has sat at roughly 10–12% of disposable income recently. A common rule of thumb is the 50/30/20 split: 50% needs, 30% wants, 20% savings and debt repayment.

How we built this

The ONS classifies spending using COICOP (Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose). Myri's categories don't line up one-to-one with COICOP, so we map each Myri category to the matching COICOP line(s) in Table A1:

Weekly figures are converted to monthly (× 52 ÷ 12).
COICOP excludes capital mortgage repayments (£37.50/week — they build wealth rather than being "spending"), and it records council tax and mortgage interest separately from housing, so we add mortgage interest back into Housing and give council tax its own row.
Composite categories (Housing, Bills & utilities, Transport, Holidays) are the sum of named ONS lines, shown in the "what it covers" column.
A few ONS divisions (alcohol & tobacco, education) don't map to a Myri category and aren't shown.
Averages are for all UK households combined. Your own sensible number depends on where you live, your household size and your circumstances.

We refresh these figures when the ONS publishes a new annual release (usually each spring).

Important: these are population averages for context and education, not financial advice or a target you should hit. Myri provides general financial guidance only. For advice specific to your situation, speak to an FCA-authorised adviser or visit MoneyHelper.

Data: Office for National Statistics, "Family spending in the UK: April 2024 to March 2025" (Workbook 1, Table A1), released 11 June 2026, under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Figures rounded; components do not necessarily sum to the total.