Exploring Lifestyle Patterns for Consumption Behavior of Sri Lankan Households

The purpose of the study is to assess qualitatively household income levels and their relationship with lifestyle patterns from a Sri Lankan perspective. This descriptive study intends to explore household consumption patterns and their significant relationship with social, economic, and environmental concerns. For data gathering, online questionnaires were simultaneously distributed among different household segments in Sri Lanka to determine Sri Lankan household consumption patterns and perceptions. The sample of the study consisted of 136 families belonging to middle-class and high-middle-class entities that were taken into the study to assess contingency among total household income level and head of household age, contingency between family income, and the preferred location to buy food Items, the households’ major shift from their ordinary expenditure pattern when there is a change in major economic factors, and the households’ major shift from their ordinary expenditure pattern when there is an environmental change in the economy. The findings show that age could not be the reason for getting a high or low salary, and other factors like demographics and education can be counted as this reason. The findings further illustrate that different income levels wish to select different locations to purchase food items. Furthermore, different outcomes in the general environment; inflation and COVID-19, made householders alter their expenditure patterns significantly. Every household is ready to give up traveling for leisure during pandemics and inflation. However, the findings explored that only a few were ready to give up education and investment plans.