One of the big items this year for the holidays? Debt!
A new survey shows that 41%, or 4 out of 10 shoppers will add or go into debt for their holiday gift giving.
"I actually fear the number could be a lot higher than that" said Ted Rossman, Senior analyst for CreditCards.com.
According to the poll, the overwhelming majority want to find ways to reduce their costs, but that usually goes out the window once it's time to pay up.
"With inflation running at it's hottest in 30 years, I think that people are going to be caught by surprise on how much the holidays cost this year" Rossman told KTRH, "A lot of the stimulus has waned at this point, a lot of the excess savings, and we may be going back to some old habits."
According to the numbers, parents will spend an average of $276 per child under 18. Men will actually spend more on their significant other than women, but in perhaps a sign of the times, nearly half of the people said they want to splurge on themselves and will be at the top of the list.
Some of the items that are being cut back? Holiday decorating, entertaining, and travel.
"We don't want you to overspend, and I don't think your family does either" Rossman said, "We want you to have a great holiday, but we don't want you to have this holiday debt hangover in January."
In addition to not going into debt, Rossman recommends scaling back on the people that you give gifts to, and he says with all of the bad things going with our economy, don't expect any last minute deals like there usually are. Retailers have the upper hand, and once the items are gone, that will be it so don't wait until the last minute.
Photo: Getty Images