Consumers in Ohio and elsewhere spent more money last year on entertainment, dining out, sprucing up their homes and other life-affirming indulgences for the first time since the recession began in late 2007.

The uptick in discretionary spending bodes well for an economy that depends on consumers for about 70 percent of overall growth. And the latest government data indicates consumers continue to feel more upbeat about their finances, which contributed to better-than-expected economic growth over the past three months.

The U.S. economy expanded at a 2 percent annual rate from July through September, slightly faster than the consensus forecasts of many economists and 0.7 percent higher than growth in the previous quarter, according to a U.S. Commerce Department report Friday.

Much of the growth last quarter in gross domestic product resulted from a 2 percent increase in consumer spending, which continued the trend from last year in which average annual household expenditures on everything from restaurant meals to haircuts rose 3.3 percent to $49,705, according to the most recent Consumer Expenditure Survey from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It was the first yearly increase in spending since a 1.7 percent bump from 2007 to 2008.

The influence of consumer spending on economic growth is difficult to understate, said Dennis Sullivan, an economics professor at Miami University.

“Consumer spending is the single largest component of aggregate spending,” Sullivan said. “If you ask, ‘Where are we going to get growth from?’ That would be it.”

After several years focused on digging out of debt and cutting expenses to offset unprecedented job losses and declining home values, Sullivan said consumers’ attitudes toward spending are perhaps finally beginning to thaw. Consumer sentiment in October surged to its highest point since September 2007, according to the Conference Board.

“There was both a substantive and psychological drag on consumption that’s been going on now for about four years, but we’re starting to work out of that now,” he said. “People are starting to say my debt situation is under control and maybe it’s alright to go out now and put some things on the credit card.”

The spike in discretionary spending has boosted sales and traffic for a variety of local businesses and shopkeepers whose customers often kept a low profile at the height of the recession.

“We’ve definitely seen an increase in business in the past year,” said Shawn Stidham, director of sales at Courtyard by Marriott Hamilton. “We’ve seen more people who are spending money on things where they would have maybe cut back for the past couple of years.”

That includes bookings for the hotel’s New Year’s packages, which already are “way up” over last year’s totals, plus special packages for Kings Island in Mason, Wake Nation in Fairfield and Start Skydiving in Middletown.

“Those packages we sold more of this year, which I think is directly attributed to people wanting to get out and do something finally,” Stidham said. “I think people are always wanting to do something fun, it’s just whether or not you have the money to do it.”

The hotel, which recently rebranded its restaurant as Plaza One Grille and revamped its menu selection, also is seeing an uptick in people ordering dessert and wine.

“It’s not back to where it was to pre-recession, but it’s improved,” Stidham said.

Bodyworks Spa in Middletown enjoyed a 50 percent increase in overall business in the past year, said Roman Roberts, who opened the spa 10 years ago.

“It’s just been great,” Roberts said. “This year has been much, much better. People are just spending a little bit more money on themselves, not just food and entertainment, but general well-being and health care.”

Revenues are up 50 percent for massage and 70 percent for personal training, he said.

“People have been working harder than they ever have to make the same amount of money, so I think it’s just stress and tension and all those things have built up,” Roberts said.

The pickup in growth may help, but growth remains too weak to rapidly boost hiring: the 1.74 percent rate for 2012 so far trails last year’s 1.8 percent growth. And there are still cllouds on the horizon that could stymie the recovery, including a package of scheduled spending cuts and tax increases commonly referred to as the fiscal cliff.

While fuel prices and health care costs drove much of the increase, discretionary spending on everything from home furnishings to chocolate showed significant gains, boosting sales for a variety of local businesses and shop owners.

Perhaps nowhere is the trend more evident than in the restaurant industy because eating out is typically the first expense people cut back on in an economic downturn, explained Jarrod Clabaugh, communications director for the Ohio Restaurant Association in Columbus.

“During the economic downturn people were trying to push their dollars as far as they could, and we saw a lot of growth in the fast-casual and fast-food segments, where people knew they could get a larger meal for their family for the money,” Clabaugh said. “Now, we’re seeing people going back to more traditional dining and ordering more appetizers and specialty drinks and possibly having dessert. Consumers seem a little bit more confident that the economy is turning around.