Every so often, I present a question to Twitter to get a feel for opinions and ideas of Consumerism Commentary fans, readers, and friends. Yesterday, I asked whether you plan on spending more or less this holiday season than you did last year on gifts and other holiday expenses. With a troubling economy that doesn’t seem to be improving any time soon — just look at today’s unemployment numbers — the prevailing thought is that people are tightening their belts.
Since Twitter restricts responses to only a sentence or two, I also invited people to respond to the poll on the Consumerism Commentary Community (C3), a bulletin board that’s slowly getting off the ground.
Here are some responses.
- dreamscostmoney: Wife and I decided to stop celebrating christmas altogether from now on. So, decidedly less.
- conedude13: le$$!! See what i did there? clever, eh? :P
- FinanceGirl: Spending less. Same value of items for everyone but me & husband, but getting stuff at better discounts & using RX transfer GCs.
- bargainr: more! stimulate that economy!
- rthornton: Plan to spend a little less. Driven more by desire to give smaller, more meaningful gifts than by state of economy
- ToughMoneyLove: Spending less
- nodebtplan: less, but not because of the economy. By choice – we’re giving gifts of experiences (doing stuff together, coming home for Christmas)
- dgstinner: I plan on spending about the same for gifts during this year’s holiday season.
- NickRac: Less – ONLY because I don’t have the girlfriend anymore!
- brokegrad: More, because I’ve had a job this year as opposed to being a broke grad student like I was last year.
- BurgBarbL: Probably about the same; I’ve managed to keep my overall spending in check, so feel OK about gifts
- Anonymous: Probably less. Even though I’m making more money this year, it isn’t going as far, and I’m making a bigger effort to limit spending.
Many of the respondents plan on spending less this year, but not necessarily due to the economy. “Bargainr” (Jim from Blueprint for Financial Prosperity) is one of the few planning to spend more than last year, in what seems like an altrustic gesture to single-handedly save the retail economy.
On C3, That One Caveman says:
Much, much less, honestly. Our cash flow situation is pretty poor with all of our money going toward finishing our basement. I’ve allocated my blog’s income from the last month or so to cover at least a modest Christmas.
I consider those of us earning income from blogging, particularly as a “side stream,” pretty lucky in this economy. Without the income I earn from Consumerism Commentary and to a lesser extent a few other online projects, I would be in a very different financial situation.
Yana, a long-time Consumerism Commentary reader adds:
We’ll probably spend the same as last year, but we don’t do Christmas gift-giving or celebrations in general… I expect that due to the economy, there may be some especially great sales during or after the season. That could cause us to shop, if there is something we could use.
Stores are struggling in this economy, and some aren’t going to survive. Circuit City has already decided to close over 150 stores in the past week. I think there will be some great deals out there as stores work extra hard to get anyone to walk through the doors.
Follow me on Twitter to participate in future polls and join the Consumerism Commentary Community to discuss issues with other readers.
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