Of the women surveyed by ConnectedWomen, none of them were planning to spend their stimulus money on CE products.

Victoria Ugate who owns www.postcardsfrommillie.com spent her stimulus payout on bills and a new website.

According to the results of a www.connectedwomen.net.au survey of almost 20 women, it seems that consumer electronic purchases has run third on women’s shopping lists generated by the Federal Government’s $900 stimulus handout.

Top of the list was debt reduction which was seen as an overwhelming necessity by our respondents. However, a portion of them did qualify this, saying if they did not have more urgent bills to attend to, they most definitely would have used it for this type of purchase.

After paying off their debts, our group of ConnectedWomen said that they would then put the money towards a holiday or even having some dental work performed.

Connected Women put the following question, “How did you spend your stimulus handout?” to twenty of our website’s regular readers and we received fourteen responses. Some of whom had already received their $900, and others who had not yet received it, but already had the money earmarked for a specific purpose. The final cheques were due to be received in the post last Friday, May 16.

More pressing financial issues, such as bills, absorbed women's stimulus dollars.

Bills absorbing stimulus dollars
Six of the respondents said that those ‘purposes’ included paying bills ranging from tax payments to accounting fees and credit card debt.

Victoria Ugate owns Postcards from Millie, a website that offers travel and style tips for women. Urgate explained that a high proportion of her credit card debt was notched up on buying consumer electronics items and that if she received another stimulus handout it would be spent on a new Apple iMac.

“After I paid off some debt, I spent the rest on building a new website for my business,” she explained. 

Adrianne Thompson, a senior executive with Meriton Group agreed with Urgate, she said that if she had had any cash left over after paying bills, she would have spent it on either a holiday or an appliance. “Although I have seen some people in the office spend their $900 on flatscreen TVs.” 

Only two women surveyed responded positively toward technology products, saying that if they didn’t have more urgent payments to attend to, they probably would have liked to spend the money on a technology product – one of them singling out a new Apple laptop.

However, holidays and handbags are still at the top of a woman's spending list.

Holidays and handbags have appeal
Two other respondents also specified holidays as something they put their stimulus dollars toward. One said it would go toward dental work and another said she had saved some of the $900 and used the rest to purchase a fashion accessory.

So in conclusion, our sample of where female consumer stimulus dollars are being directed, reveals that women are fairly burdened by bills at the moment and unable to spend any extra cash on any discretionary items. It may also indicated that technology messages are not getting through to this influential market.

But it is interesting to note that about one fifth of those surveyed said they would have spent it on a technology or consumer electronics product.