Renting isn't an alternative to living within your means

A crumbling economy is no reason to stop enjoying the best things in life, reckons The Sun. "If you can't afford to buy that must-have item, why not just borrow it?" And it seems that plenty of consumers agree Erento.co.uk, an online rental marketplace, says that the number of people visiting its site is up 20% since it launched just over a year ago.

These days you can rent anything from a handbag to a dog, meaning that those "who, bombarded by the cult of celebrity, aspire to their own millionaire lifestyle" as the Daily Mail puts it, can rent a life they can't afford to buy outright.

Wonderful. While the economy crumbles around our ears due in part to people overstretching themselves, we are still coming up with new ways to live beyond our means.

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Renting isn't always a bad thing

Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with renting in itself. If you need some heavy duty gardening or decorating equipment for a one-off job it's a great idea. It's far cheaper to hire a rotavator to brake up your soil for £40 a day from Erento.co.uk, than to buy one for £300 for the sake of an occasional job. Similarly, renting equipment when you are decorating can be far more cost effective than buying everything, only to leave it sitting in your garage or loft for years on end.

but don't rent a lifestyle

But renting a lifestyle because you can't afford to actually live it is quite simply ridiculous. One typical renter interviewed by Sadie Nichols in the Daily Mail, rents an Aston Martin, Fendi handbag and designer jewellery because "she is a tenant of a life she aspires to, yet can't afford outright".

Renting luxury items is only marginally less wasteful than buying them. For example, renting a Mulberry Bayswater bag from Handbaghirehq.co.uk will cost you £82.45 for a month (including the website's membership fee and delivery charges) whereas buying it will set you back £636 on Net-a-porter.com.

That's a big saving but it rather misses the two reasons why people buy designer handbags in the first place. Firstly, people splash out on designer bags because they are the best quality so will last a long time you won't get the benefit of that if you've only rented it for a month. Secondly, designer bags are bought by people who want to flash the cash. You don't get to do that if you have to admit the bag isn't actually yours. You'd be far better off spending £82.45 on a good quality non-designer bag that you can keep for years Ri2k do decent bags at that price. Or for two month's rent of the Mulberry you could buy a Radley handbag.

And if you own it at least you don't have to live in fear of being clobbered with a huge bill should it be lost, damaged or stolen. Handbaghirehq.co.uk takes a credit or debit card number when you hire a bag and will charge you if the bag fails to be returned or is damaged. How much isn't stipulated but you can bet it won't be cheap.

As for renting expensive jewellery, why bother when there is such good costume jewellery available? Why spend £405 to rent a cocktail ring for a week from rentyourrocks.co.uk, when you could buy a similar-looking one for £20 down your local high street?

Buying can also be cheaper

The popularity of renting electrical goods is also growing. Market research from GfK shows that the proportion of rented televisions in the TV market leapt from 2% in 2004-05 to 9% in 2008.

While more understandable than renting accessories, renting electrical goods can often end up being far more expensive than if you had just bought the item in the first place. For example, you can rent a 37-inch Panasonic LCD TV for £50 a month from ForbesDirect with a minimum 18-month contract. So at the end of the contract, you will have paid £915 (including ForbesDirect's administration fee) whereas you could buy the same model TV for £799 from Comet.

If you can't afford the upfront cost of the Panasonic, but aren't prepared to downgrade to a cheaper television, you could buy it with the Marks & Spencer Money Mastercard which is offering 0% on purchases for the first 10 months. Pay £80 off the card each month and you would own the TV and be £116 richer. As for the argument that you don't have to worry about repair bills if you rent electrical goods, you get a manufacturer's guarantee for at least a year usually when you buy.

But really, the solution if you can't afford something is simple don't buy it or rent it. Either buy a cheaper model that you can actually afford, or do without. The days of overstretching ourselves to keep up with the Jones's are over. Anyone thinking of renting a designer handbag should simply take a look at all the "credit crunch chic" articles appearing in the fashion press thriftiness is rapidly becoming trendy. So live within your means and try not to look too smug when the repossession men turn up on the Jones's doorstep.