NEW YORK (AP) — Last year, Lucila Gomez and her husband started their holiday shopping around Thanksgiving and wrapped it up a week before Christmas, spending $750 on tablets and clothing for their three children and relatives.
This year? Gomez is waiting until she gets her annual bonus on Friday to get started — and she’s limiting her spending to $200, sticking to World Cup themed jerseys for her 10-year-old twins and a 6-year-old.
“Last year, we were confident. We were like, ‘Get them whatever they want,’” said the 49-year-old Buckeye, Arizona resident, an hourly worker in the billing department of a health company. “This year, we’re waiting until we both get paid. We want to go into the New Year not owing anything.”
Last minute holiday shoppers are back in force — and inflation is partly to blame.
For the first two years of the pandemic, many were buying earlier in the season, afraid of not getting what they wanted because of shortages of products or delays in deliveries. They also had more money to spend thanks to government stimulus checks and child care credits.