You May Be Shocked at What Americans Plan to Spend This Holiday Season

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The holidays can be expensive. But read on to make sure they don’t seriously upend your finances. 

It’s November, which means the heart of the holiday season will be here before we know it. And if you’re the type to not leave things to the last minute, you may already be in the process of doing some holiday shopping.

It’s hardly a secret that the holidays tend to be an expensive time of the year. An October survey from Deloitte, however, found that U.S. consumers expect to spend an average of $1,652 on the holidays this year. That’s a 14% increase from last year.

Of course, if you can afford to shell out $1,652 for holiday gifts, decorations, and other purchases, go for it. Perhaps you have that money sitting in your savings account earmarked for this very purpose.

But a lot of people can’t afford to spend $1,652 or anything close to that. And if you’re in that boat, you should know that pushing yourself to spend beyond your means could leave you with a serious pile of credit card debt. That could, in turn, mean starting off the new year in a hole and feeling incredibly stressed about it.

A much better bet is to try to close out the holiday season debt-free. Here’s how.

1. Set a budget

Maybe you have $600 sitting in savings to spend on holiday purchases, and you’ve worked for the same company for 10 years and have consistently gotten a $200 bonus in the weeks leading up to Christmas (and there’s no reason to think you won’t have a repeat). In this case, it’s reasonable to set a spending budget of $800. But do make a point to set a limit.

If you take the approach of “I’ll just do my best to minimize my spending,” you might easily go beyond what your financial situation allows for and end up with a credit card balance you can’t pay off in full. So try your best to come up with an actual number to work with.

2. Set priorities

When you’re limited in what you can spend for the holidays, you sometimes need to make tough choices. That could mean forgoing a roof full of lights and sticking to just a Christmas tree. It could also mean giving out fewer gifts this year, or keeping your gifts to less than a certain dollar amount.

It’s not easy to cut back on expenses during the holiday season because it only comes once a year, and you don’t want to feel like you’re missing out. But think about it this way. If you rack up debt during the holidays, you’ll miss out on the chance to save your money in the new year instead of handing it over to your credit card company in interest form.

3. Consider a side gig

Don’t want to skimp on too many purchases this holiday season? You may not have to if you’re willing to hustle.

Working a side gig, whether it’s clocking in some hours at a local retailer or driving for a service like Uber, could put extra cash in your pocket so you can buy all of the gifts you want and go all out on hosting parties and events. So think about what’s more important to you — getting to spend that money or having more downtime. And it’s okay to choose either option. But if you’re willing to give up some leisure time to pull off the holidays the way you want to, then why not?

Maybe you’re planning to spend a lot less than $1,652 this holiday season. Or maybe you expect to spend more. The amount of money you anticipate spending should be based on calculations you run — not what consumers broadly expect to spend. And if you crunch those numbers and aren’t happy with the holiday budget you arrive at, you could always take advantage of the gig economy to drum up extra cash.

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