The typical UK family spends only two hours of “quality time” together a week, according to a new study of household habits.

The study also found that the average family watches a collective nine hours of television a day.

The study, billed as an alternative “people’s census” was published yesterday.

It found that the typical family wakes up at 6.57am, gets home from work at 5.15pm, and goes to bed at 10.39pm.

It spends £76 per week on groceries, £12 per week on alcohol, and has £3,280 in savings. Its favourite entertainment is watching television, with the best–loved show being the BBC’s Dr Who, according to researchers who interviewed 2,000 families.

Mary Turner, of Alert Me, a home energy management service that commissioned the study, described the Government census as “quite run–of–the–mill”.

She told The Daily Telegraph that their study instead looked at the “bare bones of people’s everyday behaviour”; what they eat, the car they drive, how much they spend, and try to save.

She said the study showed that many families, and parents especially, were fairly frugal when it came to spending.

“Without a doubt these have been testing times for everyone, but this study shows that people are really trying to spend within their means,” she added.

The typical family usually sits down for dinner at 5.54pm, but due to hectic lives, its members have an evening meal together just three nights a week and breakfast together twice.

The study also found that mothers still do most of the chores, performing on average four and half hours of housework each week, including nearly six loads of laundry in seven days.

The average household has a mortgage but has paid off nearly 32 per cent of the balance.

Trips to the cinema, DVDs and games for the children add up to £15 each week.

The study found that eight in ten families consider themselves as “happy”or “very happy”, and 70 per cent of the adults polled described their household as “completely normal”. But it is not completely harmonious – with the typical household admitting to arguing twice a week.

Most families say that they have been affected by the economic downturn and fear that utility bills could rise by 70 per cent over the next 10 years.

Not surprisingly 68 per cent reckon the recession has left them with less “money in their pocket” at the end of each week.

Two–thirds of adults say they are shocked at the amount of their household bills. The study found that fathers were the most likely to go around turning off lights and standby switches.

Miss Turner added: ‘”In some areas, such as household energy, lights are still being left on and while people are worried about the escalating costs of their bills they don’t even know which devices are using up so much electricity which is causing their bills to be so high.”