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On the streets of Britain there was a new creature to be seen last week. Frugal, clutching their reusable bags, ignoring piles of glittering novelty festive gifts that sold in their millions last year, scouring the half-empty shelves of Woolworths, they are eschewing designer recycled wrapping paper to stock up cheap stuff from street corner stalls.
They are leaving their credit cards at home and using cash, and they are ignoring the gourmet Christmas party canapés and ready-made meals in favour of stocking up on traditional comfort food like Lancashire hotpot and more basic ingredients to cook from scratch at home.
The market research company Mintel reported this weekend that the numbers of people who say they always cook from scratch - creating a meal from the basic ingredients - has doubled to 41 per cent from just 24 per cent five years ago. People are even turning away from that potent symbol of the 'yuppy' and the Nineties boom years - bottled mineral water - to drink straight from the tap.
And it's all not just about economising but also about looking for comfort in uneasy and unsettling times. 'The face of Britain has not changed - it's just that we have all gone to basics,' said Iain Ellwood, at Interbrand, a brand consultancy company.
'But we have a blueprint, it's etched in our psyche. We are genetically programmed to be frugal, we have been in a cycle of this for generations, the war years, the depression, we all know what to do, and actually some people even get a secret sense of enjoyment out of it. Everyone will bake cakes instead of buying them and cut back on spending and Britain is good at that - in fact, better than the Americans or the Germans. It's a Dunkirk spirit.'
Entrepreneurial food companies are leaping on this trend with Birds Eye about to relaunch an old favourite dessert, the arctic roll, even resurrecting its advertising campaign from the recession days of 1985 to 'help consumers cope with the current economic downturn'. Frozen food sales are rising, and ready meals are dropping, as are other 'luxury' items.
Amid an economic climate of doom and gloom, dropping house prices and fears over job cuts and repossessions, British consumers are tightening their belts this Christmas, with many cutting down on the number of presents they buy and the majority paying for them in cash.
In a new survey of shoppers on British high streets by the Halifax this month, four out of 10 people said that they were spending less on Christmas this year, while 21 per cent of people are drastically changing their shopping habits because of the economic downturn.
The changes in habits are geographical, too - in Yorkshire and Humberside just 26 per cent of people will be changing their Christmas spending habits dramatically from last year, while in the South East more will be cutting back on the numbers of presents they buy - 46 per cent will buy fewer items than they did last year when the economic outlook was brighter. Two-thirds of people in Wales plan to buy fewer presents and nearly half of people in the West Midlands have agreed on a spending limit with friends and family.
Nationwide, more than a third will be ignoring Gordon Brown's efforts to get them to part with their cash and will be buying fewer presents. Late-night shoppers in London and Brighton this weekend echoed that sentiment.
'We have all agreed in our family only to buy for the children and our grandparents,' said Ella English, 23, of Watford. 'I think it's a great idea and no one ever buys me anything I like anyway, so it doesn't bother me, it always seems such a waste of money anyway.' She said her elder sister was even thinking of watering down the arrangements for her wedding next year. 'She's thinking maybe it should be a much smaller do and she's already decided to cancel the Daimler cars.'
About 56 per cent of people who are making changes said they were taking advantage of pre-Christmas sales - Marks and Spencer and Debenhams have both held sale days and the sale rail, once something never seen at this time of year, is prominent in many shops.
More than a third of people said they had prepared gift lists to stop them buying all those little extras and would be sticking rigidly to budgets. But many people are immune to the downturn - sales of top-end luxury brands are still high - while many more are taking advantage of it. At high-profile London shop Harrods yesterday there was a noticeably high number of foreign tourists doing some Christmas shopping; the French and the Americans are taking advantage of currency rate fluctuations.
Florence Blanc, 41, from Paris, was shopping with her eldest daughter Leah, 16. 'It is cheap to come here and a nice outing. Usually in Paris we get sick of so many English at this time of year - now I guess you will have to be sick of us. We are not going mad with the spending this year, but certainly I can buy my girls more in London than in Paris and it will be something a little different. But just like English girls my daughters are learning that shopping can no longer be their favourite hobby.'
For Amélie, Cecilia, Charlie, Lilley and Sophie, all 15 and out Christmas shopping in Churchill Square shopping mall in Brighton, the end is not yet in sight for their favourite pastime.
'My mum said she will only give me money every second week instead of every week and gave me a huge lecture about disposable fashion and not going to Primark, but we will come into town and just look anyway, because that's where you meet your friends and see what the best clothes are, even if you can't buy them,' said Lilley. 'But my dad says it's a lot of nonsense and gave me another £5 when I left.'
And she is not alone in having money in her pocket - research is showing too that cash is back, as people try hard to stick to budgets. Overall 71 per cent of people will pay for at least some of their presents in cash, while 35 per cent will use a credit card, 14 per cent will rely on a store card, and 5 per cent will take out a loan in order to cover the cost.
People who plan to buy their Christmas presents with cash expect to spend an average of £317, while those who are relying on debt will spend around £234. But those relying on debt to fund the whole cost of Christmas expect to end the festive season £449 in the red.
'The journey people are going through is leaving people dazed and hesitant,' said Ellwood, head of consultancy at Interbrand. 'It's a crisis of confidence, and especially because this recession is so much more opaque than previous ones.
'So we really are seeing this flight back to basics, in food, in spending, even in Christmas, but we take this rallying round very well and we'll see the green shoots soon enough.'
- Saving money
- Credit crunch
- High street retailers
- Retail industry
- Consumer affairs
- Credit cards
- Economics
- Family finances
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