I know this post is a little off topic. Here are three examples of why men spend more money than women.
1. Higher Grocery Bills - According to a 2004 US Department of Agriculture study single men spend an average of $60 a week on food, single women spend $50 a week. Therefore it costs $520 more a year being a single man.
2.More Debt - According to FreeCreditReport.com men have more $1468 more in credit card and installment debt than women. If the average rate on that debt was 12%, men would pay $176.16 more a year interest.
3.More miles driven. - According to a 2001 US Department of Transportation survey men under 65 drive an average of 10.9 more miles per day than women under 65. If you use the 2006 IRS automobile reimbursement rate of 44.5 cents per mile, it costs $1770.25 more a year for men under 65 to drive than it costs women under 65.
Hmmm... this is interesting, but I wonder why #s 2 and 3 are the case. The first one seems physiological. Men are generally bigger, thus eat more. But men also earn more on average, so the extra ten bucks a week in groceries cannot be faulted for the credit card debt. And #3, well, that one's probably pretty obvious.
Posted by: lamoneyguy | August 15, 2006 at 05:41 PM
Interesting! Surprised you haven't got any feedback from females yet...I can imagine their list is quite expansive--monthly costs maybe? lol.
Posted by: financial freedumb | August 15, 2006 at 05:45 PM
Interesting. Some things I wouldn't have thought about.
Posted by: Jersey Girl | August 16, 2006 at 11:31 AM
Women have other expenses tho LOL. Our list is up if you’d like to look… have a great day!
Posted by: MamaDuck | August 16, 2006 at 12:15 PM
haha, good thing men make more money :p
http://joshmaher.wordpress.com/2006/08/14/top-ten-reasons-you-should-not-blog/
Posted by: Josh Maher | August 16, 2006 at 12:27 PM
Interesting statistics. I wonder how the beauty and hygeine industry figures in there. I know men are more prone to spending on that stuff now than in the past, but I would still bet that women far outspend them on beauty products and treatments, and are also more likely to consider certain beauty products to be basic necessities. I also wonder about eating habits--how much more likely are single men than women to eat out or order in instead of saving money by preparing their own meals?
As for #2, I also suspect that men are more likely than women to use credit cards to impulsively buy big ticket items. Just a guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if the statistics exist somewhere to back it up.
Posted by: jeanjeanie | August 17, 2006 at 01:42 PM