The average woman in Britain spends more than £31 000 (about R361 000) on shoes during her lifetime and almost £16 000 (R186 000) on belts and other accessories, an insurance group said on Monday.
A third of women say they have 25 pairs of shoes in their wardrobe, and about 1,3-million women claim to have well more than 30 pairs, according to research carried out by the group.
About 44% of females admit that shoes are their biggest weakness when out shopping, with 86% of people claiming to buy at least one new pair a month, said Churchill Home Insurance group.
It said the average woman starts shopping for her own clothes at the age of 14.
If she spends an average of £40 (R466) a month on shoes each month, she will have bought £31 680-worth of footwear by the time she is 80, it said.
At the same time, the insurance group said women spend about £15 840 on accessories such as handbags and jewellery during their lifetime.
Six out of 10 women say they own 10 handbags and 3% have more than 25 different ones, while 80% of women have at least 10 belts.
Overall, 42% of women admit they regularly splash out on accessories they don’t really need.
Unsurprisingly, one in five women say they hide their purchases from their partner, while 22% lie about how much they have spent.
The research carried out by 72 Point for the insurance group questioned 2 000 women during July. — AFP