Survey: Consumers wary of spending

New York – While attitudes haven't changed overwhelmingly since December 2013, some shifts in plans for the next six months may indicate that Americans are questioning their financial prospects during the next few months, according to a new Harris Poll. The survey of 2,234 U.S. adults shows that Americans are more likely than in December to say that they plan on decreasing their spending on eating out at restaurants (59%, up four points) within the next six months.



Consumers are also less likely to say they will save or invest more money within the next six months (52%, down six points), that they will have more money to spend the way they want (34%, down four points) and that they will buy a new computer (23%, down four points) when compared to December 2013.



Looking back at activities done during the past six months to save money, numbers haven't changed much from December findings. Six-in-10 Americans (59%, up one point) say they have been purchasing more generic brands, just more than four-in-10 (42%, holding steady from December results) say they've been brown bagging lunch instead of purchasing it and just more than a third say they've switched to a refillable water bottle instead of purchasing bottles of water (34%, up one point).