Spending categories with the highest increases in 2024

Fellow City-Cost contributor ToneToEdo recently asked a question about grocery budgets and how we're tackling the increase in prices that seem to be coming from every direction.

It prompted me to do a little digging, and I found some research conducted by household financial management company SmartBank about the spending categories with the highest increases this year. The data they collected for this year was right up until a few days ago (December 11th), and there were a few key findings.

Image created myself via Canva AI graphic generator.

One of them was the rise in utility bills, which had a 27% year-on-year increase. This was the top-growing expense for 2024, which was primarily driven by the ending of subsidies that the government had implemented since January 2023.

Daily necessity purchases at drugstores also jumped by 20%, reflecting the rising costs of health and beauty products and household essentials. This was followed closely by food costs, with supermarket and convenience store items rising in price by 15%.

Interestingly (and honestly, sadly), spending on hobbies saw the smallest increase at just 0.6%. I think this is fairly obvious—when the cost of everything else rises, we don't have the same amount of disposable cash to pursue the things we want, focusing more on the stuff we need to purchase.

The research also had a few good money saving tips from respondents, including things like cooking at home wherever possible over dining out, and purchasing in bulk where possible (often online) to lessen costs and also avoid impulse purchases.

Do you feel like the research from SmartBank is fairly in line with the price increases you've experienced in 2024?