How much do you spend on your holiday wardrobe?

Let's face it; a holiday can be a pricey enough affair without even considering the cost of the clothes we sometimes need to pack. If your wardrobe is running low on swimwear, shorts, dresses and nice, cool summer fashion, there's a high chance you might have to head out on a shopping trip before you go away to make sure you're not forced to lie on the beach in underwear and spend your evenings overheating in a jumper.

In our latest poll, we wanted to find out how much money people spend on their holiday wardrobes. We spoke to 1,927 women aged 18 and over, all of whom had been on holiday abroad in the past 12 months, and asked them all about what new items they'd packed in their suitcases.

£245 - average amount female holidaymakers spend on their holiday wardrobe

When we asked those taking part in the poll to estimate how much money they spent getting their holiday wardrobe ready for their last trip abroad, including all new clothes, accessories and toiletries/beauty products, the average answer was £245.00

We wanted to find out what this £245.00 had been put towards and so we asked the ladies taking part in the study to elaborate. According to our survey, the following items were bought by female holidaymakers before their last trip abroad:

- 4 pieces of swimwear

- 6 summer dresses

- 3 pairs of sandals/holiday shoes

- 1 pair of sunglasses

- 3 pieces of holiday jewellery

- 2 pairs of shorts

- 5 holiday tops/vests

- 1 beach bag

- 1 bottle of sun lotion

- 3 pieces of make-up

So why do so many of you buy brand new items before a holiday instead of relying on items you already own? Well, according to our survey, it's because you don't want to look the same in your holiday photos as you did in the last batch of snaps (21% of respondents picked this as their answer). A third, 33%, simply explained that they bought new items every time they went away out of habit, but we think that's a pretty expensive habit to pick up!

£245.00 sounds like a lot in the first place, but to really see what this cost was in relation to the price of a holiday for people, we dug deeper. We found that the average female holidaymaker taking part in the poll had paid £710.00 for their last trip abroad (just for themselves); which means that around a third of the initial holiday cost was spent on top of their booking cost getting their holiday wardrobes ready. Wowzers!

Every time you go on holiday, we'd advise trying to make use of the clothes and accessories that you already own to keep costs down. There's no need to buy new items every time, only when you really need them. Why not see if a friend would be willing to lend you some bits and pieces for your holiday if you're really desperate to mix things up a bit? That way, you can save more money for your next trip abroad, instead of splashing out on a new wardrobe!