More than 70 per cent of the respondents to the most recent caycompass.com online poll said they will spend less money this holiday season compared to other years.
Of the 591 total respondents, more than half – 304 people, or 51.4 per cent – said they would spend a lot less this year.
‘I don’t think I’ll be buying much, if any, gifts this year,’ said one person. ‘I simply can’t afford it. The economic conditions are really rough and will continue to worsen.’
‘With low wages and the high cost of living, it’ll be a very quite Christmas this year,’ said another person.
‘I will spend a lot less not because of the economy, but because I’ve realised I waste money on gifts,’ said someone else.
Another 115 people (19.5 per cent) said they would spend a little less this year compared to other years.
‘Times are tough,’ said one respondent.
Eighty people (13.5 per cent) said they would spend the same amount this year compared to other years.
‘My family likes simple things, so shopping for gifts is not something that runs up big bills for me,’ said one person. ‘So I’ll be spending as much as I usually do.’
‘I never spend much,’ said someone else. ‘I donate to charity instead.’
Some people qualified their responses.
‘We’ll spend about what we always do, but it will probably be for more practical items we need that we would have purchased at some point anyway,’ said one person. ‘The result will be that we spend less over the course of the year, but that reduction won’t be seen at Christmastime.’
Only 29 respondents (4.9 per cent) said they would spend more this year compared to previous years.
‘I was a student last year,’ said one person.
‘Prices are usually up from the year before so I would expect to pay more,’ said someone else.
Twenty-five people responded that they didn’t know.
‘I was going to spend a lot less,’ said one person. ‘But Minister Clifford says the tourism industry is going to do fine this season, so maybe I should go out and spend more.’
Another 38 respondents (6.4 per cent) answered ‘Bah humbug’ to the question, perhaps suggesting they won’t spend anything at all for the holiday season.
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