Consumers were slightly less confident in March as the job market outlook softened, according to the Numerator Consumer Sentiment Tracker.
To conserve funds in uncertain times, consumers polled in the tracking study reported cooking at home (39%), shopping for items on sale (39%) and using coupons/discount codes (38%). As for willingness to buy big, 41% of consumers said they were very or somewhat comfortable spending money on discretionary purchases, a number that has remained consistent for the past few months.
In addition, Numerator maintained:
- 48% of consumers said their household’s financial situation is currently good or very good, down one point from February.
- 34% of consumers with spare cash said they are putting it into savings, 31% are paying down debts, and 28% are using it to pay for vacations or travel.
- 13% of consumers said they don’t have any spare cash, up 1.3 points year over year.
- 33% of consumers said they are spending less overall.
Financial outlook dropped in March, with shoppers still feeling mostly neutral about their future finances. The March Financial Outlook Score was 50.7, down two points from February. When asked to think about a year out, a quarter said they believed their finances would be better, but the percentage who thought their finances would be worse rose to 24%, up three points month over month. The majority, at 51%, believe their finances will be the same.
