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Stuart Gentle Publisher at Onrec

1 in 3 married Brits don’t know how much their partner earns

New research reveals how Brits lie to their partners about their spending habits

  • Brits lie about where 5% of their salary goes
  • Over a third of Brits lie to their partner about their spending
  • 1 in 3 married Brits don’t know how much their partner earns

1 in 3 married Brits don’t know how much their partner earns. According to a survey conducted by Paymentsense on 2000 people in a relationship in the UK, people aren’t always honest to their partners about their spending habits, wage or the amount of debt they have. 

Shockingly, the amount Brits spend in a year and lie to their partner about, totals 5% of their annual salary. And those who earn £15-20k a year lie the most about how much they spend, almost half of them have lied to their partner about their spending (48%). Those who earn between £40k-50k each year are the most trusting as almost a third say their partner knows their online banking details. 

Paymentsense asked people to admit how much they had spent on different things in the past year, and kept secret from their partner. This included items such as clothes, make up, beauty treatments and social occasions. The below table shows the averages;

 

Average

Female

Male

Fashion purchases

£365.93

£339.50

£397.67

Beauty purchases

£439.82

£430.83

£452.53

Social occasions

£454.96

£428.82

£474.95

Other e.g alcohol, cigarettes, gambling

£182.8

£159.99

£197.63

Total

£1,443.51

£1,359.14

£1,522.78


The figures show that men spend more money and hide it from their partners, but when compared to the average salary of men and women in the UK, women are spending more of their wage and hiding it from their partner.

 

Average

Female

Males

Money spent and hidden

£1,443.51

£1359.14

£1522.78

Average wage*

£27,384

£25,066

£30,223

Percentage

5.27%

5.42%

5.04%

How do people hide their spending form their partner? The main trick way people hide how much they spend is by saying things were in the sale, 13% of people do this. Another tactic is hiding receipts, 1 in 10 people do this. Other tricks include paying with cash so it doesn’t appear on your bank statement, paying on a different card and getting online orders sent to work instead of home.