Holiday spending makes 25% of Canadians feel helpless

When meeting with clients this time of year, spend a few minutes talking about the importance of budgeting during the year. Odds are, a few of your clients are part of the 23% of Canadians who say whether they set a budget or not, they feel helpless when trying to control their spending during the holidays.

What’s worse, 68% of this group admit that this reflects how they handle their finances throughout the rest of the year.

When it comes to spending on items other than gifts, more than 36% say they tend to budget for gifts, but forget to budget for miscellaneous holiday spending on things such as food, drink, entertainment and travel.

Read: Budgeting main cause of holiday stress

Feeling good about giving

Over half of Canadians (62%) say they’re not concerned with overspending during the holidays because it feels good to give gifts and 76% say they enjoy the holidays and aren’t worried about the cost. On the other hand, 31% are concerned by their excessiveness and 18% say they don’t enjoy the holiday season because of their worry over the financial outlay.

Setting boundaries

A third of holiday shoppers say they set a spending budget and stick to it, but 15% of those who set a budget say they have a habit of spending more. Meanwhile, 40% of Canadians say they control their spending by limiting their purchases to what they can pay for in cash.

The size of their resulting credit card bill comes as a surprise to 17% of holiday shoppers—with those aged 25 to 34 being most likely to be surprised at the final tally.

Read: Travel more cheaply in 2014

Across the country Canadians look for ways to save

Two-thirds of those surveyed say they shop in advance to limit last minute splurging, with more women planning in advance than men, at 69% compared to 63%.

A fifth of respondents surveyed said they purchase gently-used or second hand holiday gifts during the season and 17% admit to re-gifting to cut down on costs. And 44% save some of their gift-giving and shopping for after the holidays to take advantage of sales.

Ways to save	Atlantic	Quebec	Ontario	Saskatchewan/ Manitoba	Alberta	B.C.
Re-gifting	22%	12%	16%	19%	20%	25%
Second hand gifting	17%	32%	13%	21%	6%	26%
Post-holiday gifting	52%	45%	44%	53%	36%	40%

Read: U.S. consumer spending up