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Family and Consumer Sciences

Ohio State University Extension

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Keeping Holiday Spending in Check

Nov. 24, 2020

Advanced Planning and Budgeting: Key to Keeping Holiday Spending in Check

With all the expenses that typically occurs during the winter holiday season, avoiding overspending can be hard. In fact, many struggle to stay within normal spending limits during the holidays, often taking months into the next year to pay off the resulting debt.

While this has become an annual issue for many consumers, the economic stress many are already dealing with now as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the issue to take on even more significance this year.

Already, some 49 percent of consumers say the pandemic has negatively impacted their holiday budgets, according to the 2020 Holiday Outlook by PwC, formerly Price Waterhouse Coopers. The international accounting firm’s survey of more than 1,000 consumers found that total holiday spending will be 3% less this year, with the average consumer planning to spend $1,248 this year compared to last year’s total of $1,284. [Read the full article...]