Consumer Optimism Tracker
The weekly read on UK consumer optimism –
how Britain feels, who feels it, why, and what brands should do next.
02 Oct 2026Published 23 Oct 2026Konfidant Week 39Read time: 2 min
UK Consumer Optimism reaches +30 as autumn brings familiar favourites and fresh plans
We're planning for events to look forward to over the coming weeks, and spreading the costs of big spends before bills and the Budget hit.
Net optimism, four-week rolling · 8 Oct 2021 to 2 Oct 2026
Four-week headline +30 · 4 points higher than last year
Latest weekly signal +27 · no change on last year
Four-week headline +30
4 points higher than last year
What's changing
Mood | Steady – the cold and sniffles are running a week or so late |
Plans | We want to get things in the diary – standouts beat the same-old |
Halloween | A night of escape – thumbs-up to affordable mood changers |
Budget | Someone has to pay – young hope, old dread |
Burnham | Common ground, for now – divisive topics left unsaid |
Credit | BNPL on the up – instalments hurt less than one big bill |
Normal is holding and we’re treating ourselves - with money on our minds this won't last for long
Moving into October means that autumn is well and truly underway, plus warm weather continuing means that heating can stay off for another week. Life is almost starting to feel more normal, and we’re looking forward to dates in the diary to lift us out of the everyday.
We’re also gearing up for Halloween, looking to escape and transform from the ordinary for a night – 47% of us are buying chocolate/sweets for the door, and 38% of us are buying decorations and pumpkins.
Financial worries are looking likely to rise and we’re finding it hard to resist the treats – we’re turning more to Buy Now Pay Later rather than the traditional credit cards. BNPL is up 1.5m vs 2022 and is being used more on lasting lifts and long-term investments.
The Budget is also coming onto the horizon. Over-45s are bracing for impact. Burnham’s party conference won by bringing all ages together, focusing on the common ground issues we all share. The logic was hard to argue with – fix the essentials, from healthcare and jobs to economic growth, and aspiration will follow.
“As life starts to feel a bit more normal, now’s the time for brands to give us something to look forward to – with something on the horizon, today feels more manageable.”
Alison Bainbridge, Co-Founder, Konfidant
Week 40 (4–10 Oct) means feeding the feel-good
We’re starting to move inside for autumn, but are still wanting stand-out moments to bring us out of the ordinary:
- Keep promises intact – make plans feel secure and excitement-filled all the way to the day
- Prove us right – make our standout moments feel special
- Keep cosy effortless – offer good value and provide the small comforts that hold normal in place
About the data
- The measure
- Every week we ask around 2,000 people across the UK how optimistic they feel about life – not only about money. Consumer Optimism subtracts the share who feel pessimistic from the share who feel optimistic. Alongside the survey we follow a community of 50 UK households, which is where the why comes from. The headline is a four-week rolling score, so one noisy week can't move the story.
- Sample and method
- Around 2,000 UK adults aged 18+, surveyed online and weighted by age, gender, region and social grade.
- Current wave
- n=9,114. Fieldwork: 30 Sep 2026.
- Question
- “Please click below to indicate how optimistic you are feeling about life in general at the moment.” The question scale includes the following responses: Very optimistic (Optimistic) Quite optimistic (Optimistic) Neither optimistic nor pessimistic (Neutral) Quite pessimistic (Pessimistic) Very pessimistic (Pessimistic) The Optimism net score is calculated as percentage optimistic minus percentage pessimistic.
- Headline score
- Four-week rolling average, around 8,000 interviews. Percentage-point change against the same four weeks last year.
- History
- Weekly since March 2020.
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