Fewer Americans are trying to save money by putting off a range of expenses, from medical care to vacations, new polling from HuffPost/YouGov shows.
People are still prioritizing: 42 percent say they've delayed buying clothes or personal items, while 33 percent say they've chosen not to take time off and smaller fractions say they've put off home and car repairs, or even seeking medical attention.
Thirty-six percent, though, say they haven't had to do any of those things so far this year. That's up 9 percentage points since this past December.
HuffPost readers: Have you put off any expenses this year to make ends meet? Tell us about it at openreporting@huffingtonpost.com
Just about half of Americans say they've taken, or are going to take, a summer vacation this year, while the rest don't have any plans to do so. The majority say saving money played a part in their summer plans this year, with just over a third calling it a major factor.
Cost wasn't the only issue. Forty-five percent of people who work at least part-time say that the amount of time they're able to take off from work also factored into their plans.
Americans' perceptions of their finances overall have remained relatively stable since December. In another HuffPost/YouGov survey, just 29 percent say they make enough to live comfortably, while 47 percent say they're getting by and 19 percent say they're not even able to do that -- numbers that have budged little during 2015. About a third say they worry about money all the time.
Those worries remain especially potent among people living in households making $40,000 or less a year, just 11 percent of whom say they're living comfortably and 44 percent of whom report stressing constantly about money. Americans in this income bracket were 8 points more likely than Americans as a whole to say they'd put off some expenses to save money and 8 points less likely to have summer vacation plans this year.
The two HuffPost/YouGov polls cited consisted of 1,000 completed interviews each, conducted July 4-6 and July 8-9 among U.S. adults, using a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population.
The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov's nationally representative opinion polling. Data from all HuffPost/YouGov polls can be found here. More details on the polls' methodology are available here.
Most surveys report a margin of error that represents some, but not all, potential survey errors. YouGov's reports include a model-based margin of error, which rests on a specific set of statistical assumptions about the selected sample, rather than the standard methodology for random probability sampling. If these assumptions are wrong, the model-based margin of error may also be inaccurate. Click here for a more detailed explanation of the model-based margin of error.