Consumer spending at restaurants and on takeaways fell last month as many begin saving for the festive period, according to Barclays. 

On the other hand, bars, pubs and clubs had a positive September, with spending increasing rising 6.1% compared to 2.8% the previous month, likely due to sports fans gathering to watch the Rugby World Cup. 

Overall spending grew 4.2 per cent year-on-year in September – less than the latest CPIH* inflation rate of 6.3 per cent but higher than August’s growth figure of 2.8 per cent. 

This was driven by spending on essential items which grew 4.6 per cent, considerably higher than the previous month month (1.0 per cent). 

Close to half, 47% have noticed more examples of “surge pricing”, with 32% seeing an increase in the price of food and drink in pubs and bars during peak times.

Only 8% consumers say they are willing to pay more to eat and drink out at popular times, Barclays found.

Those who are happy to pay “surge prices” would spend an average of 70p more for a pint of beer and an additional 60p for a glass of wine.

Spending on non-essential items increased 4.0 per cent – slightly more than in August (3.7 per cent).

However, rising cost-of-living continued to impact spending on restaurants, which saw further decline in September of -10.8% compared to -5.8% in August. 

44% of consumers said they are planning to reduce discretionary spending over the next couple of months to save money for the festive period, with eating out at restaurants the most frequently cited cutback (60%).

Jack Meaning, Chief UK Economist at Barclays, said, “Over the last few months a picture has been building of consumers beginning to pull back on discretionary spending as the cost of living, and monetary tightening from the Bank of England increasingly bite.

”We’ve seen the warning signs from surveys, and now we see it in the more concrete spending data.

“This suggests the outlook for consumers, and the businesses that rely on them, is weak, even as they finally see their disposable incomes rise faster than inflation. It makes it hard to see anything but a relatively stagnant economy on the horizon.”