| name | spending-benchmarks |
| description | Provides UK monthly household spending benchmark ranges by category, income band, and broad region (London vs rest of UK). Use this skill whenever the fire-ready interview encounters an "I don't know" answer for a spending category, or whenever you need to sanity-check a user's stated spending against typical UK figures. Returns ranges, not point estimates, so the user can place themselves on the distribution. |
UK Spending Benchmarks
Provides ballpark monthly £ ranges for spending categories used in the FIRE Ready interview. Based on UK ONS Family Spending data, with a London uplift for housing-sensitive categories.
When to use
- A user gives "I don't know" or hesitates on a spending category in the FIRE Ready interview.
- You want to sanity-check whether a user's stated number is materially out of line with typical UK figures (e.g., they report £100/month total housing in London — almost certainly an error or omission).
How to use
- Read the user's monthly net income and (if known) location (London vs rest of UK).
- Look up the relevant range in
references/uk-ons-benchmarks.md.
- Offer the range conversationally: "For someone on your income in [region], [category] typically lands between £X and £Y a month — does that feel right, or higher/lower?"
- Capture the user's response with confidence flag
low.
Important rules
- These are population averages. Never imply that a user's own spending "should" match the benchmark. The benchmark is a memory aid for "what's plausible", not a target.
- Don't volunteer benchmarks unprompted. Only use them as a fallback when the user genuinely doesn't know.
- Note vintage in any output that uses them. The reference data should be refreshed against the latest ONS Family Spending publication annually.
- Ranges, not points. Always offer a range, not a single number — the point is to anchor the user, not pretend at precision.
MVP data caveat
The reference file ships with placeholder figures based on rough UK averages. Refresh against the latest ONS Family Spending publication before any non-MVP use. The skill should surface a "data vintage: [year]" note in the final output when these figures contributed materially (i.e., more than half of categories were estimated from benchmarks).
Reference data
See references/uk-ons-benchmarks.md for the lookup table.
