Bucks Blog: Many Consumers Plan to Spend Less This Holiday Season

Associated PressHoliday shoppers in Miami.

With economic concerns weighing heavily, 42 percent of Americans –and 49 percent of parents — say they plan to spend less this holiday season than last year, a recent survey found.

Bankrate.com’s November Financial Security Index poll, released early this week, found that just 10 percent of Americans plan to spend more this year than they did in 2010.

But it remains to be seen if consumers can stick to their budgets. Retailers, for instance, reported strong sales over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

“While consumers indicate a reluctance to spend more this holiday season, there is a notorious disconnect between how consumers feel and how consumers act, particularly regarding spending,” said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst for Bankrate.com, in a statement.

Princeton Survey Research Associates conducted the telephone survey of 1,005 adults in early November. The margin of sampling error is four percentage points.

The index fell to its second-lowest level of the year, as feelings of job security hit a new low. Just 13 percent of Americans feel more secure in their jobs now than they did one year ago, which helped drag down the overall index to 92.5 points, just above the 2011 low of 92.3 recorded in August. (A reading below 100 indicates decreasing levels of financial security compared with 12 months earlier.)

The percentage of Americans reporting higher net worth than one year ago rebounded slightly in November, thanks to the October stock market rally. Feelings on both savings and debt were largely unchanged from October, with only 11 percent of Americans more comfortable with their savings and 20 percent more comfortable with their debt relative to one year ago.

Are you planning to spend less over the holidays this year? How will you make sure you stay within your budget?

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=ec2e3fa79689fb3ad970bfeabe6a3c4a