A SIX-month study of almost 10,000 Britons has revealed that people in the West Midlands are the third most frugal in the UK.

Only populations in the North West and Scotland were found to be better at penny-pinching while Londoners were labelled the least likely to carefully budget.

The research, known as the UK Frugality Index, was carried out by vouchercodespro.co.uk, a money-saving website that quizzed 9,600 residents on their spending habits.

Nick Swan, founder and chief executive officer of the website, said: “The index is something that we created purely to determine how frugal people around the UK are, but we’re now making this public.

“By doing so we are giving everyone the option to take part and see how frugal they are and they can use this to determine how similar, or dissimilar, to those in their own region they are.

“Those in the North West are clearly very thrifty and proud of it. More people should take a leaf out of their book and start handling their cash in a more sensible manner.”

The survey results were generated by asking members of the public to give ratings of between one and 10 in response to questions such as “How often are you likely to check for any available vouchers or discount codes before making a purchase online or in-store?”

Scores were then collated and averaged to create the UK Frugality Index.