Released: November 20, 2006

How to shop smart for the holidays

Source: Kate Williamson, The Examiner

Picture this: it’s January. The holiday roasts are eaten. There are still a few chocolates left, but the greenery has browned around the edges and is sitting in the compost bin. The presents have all been used at least once. And an eye-popping credit card bill is waiting in the mailbox.

For shoppers entering this week’s kickoff to the holiday shopping season who want to avoid a financial winter hangover, consumer advocates have advice. Make a budget, make a plan, stick to it and avoid credit, they advise. And it’s not just the much-ballyhooed PlayStation 3 or other big-ticket items that can stretch paying off the holidays into the spring.

“Little things add up more than if you just bought a big thing,” said Erica Sandberg of the nonprofit Consumer Credit Counseling of San Francisco. “It’s very difficult to control and keep track of spending when things you buy are relatively inexpensive, because you feel flush.”

The great risk, she said, is for families already overburdened with debt. The trend for this year seems to be that people will spend roughly what they spent last year on the holidays — around $1,000 per family, according to both Sandberg and Scott Bilker, author of “Talk Your Way Out of Credit Card Debt!” and operator of DebtSmart.com. However, some will have budgeted for their shopping and will pay it off quickly, while for others, the debt will become part of a larger load of outstanding consumer debt, Sandberg said.

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