Leader: Dreary days of enforced austerity

CUT spending and bear down on the fripperies: great advice. A snapshot survey of the nation’s finances finds households are cutting back on frivolous spending and focusing on the essentials.

But that’s more easily said than done. The definition of “frivolous” is subjective. Plasma screen TVs may be unnecessary in one household but a must-have in another if it encourages staying in. A bar of scented soap may be considered a total frippery by men but really quite essential for their partners. Electronic gadgets such as smart phones, iPads and e-readers slide effortlessly from “non-essential” to “must-have” at the press of a new app button. Meals out can hardly be rated as essential – except when it’s our own birthday or when the visiting in-laws have used every kitchen utensil to boil an egg.

Do we really need exercise treadmills, the George Clooney coffee-maker, en-suite bathrooms, two cars, holidays in the sun, club subscriptions, gym memberships, and the eternally ungrateful cat, immobile by the fire when not devouring half the tin of expensive food and refusing to look at the rest? How austere January can be when we rest the credit card and hunker down until weariness or boredom sets in. Then the good work is undone in one mad, orgiastic shopping splurge – better known as March.