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Christmas spending expected to drop: survey

As the holiday season creeps closer a new survey found Canadians expect to scale back spending this year on gifts, decorations and food. File / Global News

WINNIPEG – Halloween isn’t even over yet and shoppers’ minds and wallets have turned to Christmas.

As the holiday season creeps closer a new survey found Canadians expect to scale back spending this year.

Field Agent Canada, a consumer focused app, asked its users about how much they plan to spend on gifts, decorations and food this year compared to last year.

“It’s going to be a bit of an exercise in frugality across most of the country,” said Jeff Doucette, with Field Agent Canada.

The results show the national average is $885 this year, compared to $953 last year. That is a decline of 7.2 per cent.

Manitobans expect to spend even less at $803 this year compared to $890 in 2013, that works out to be a drop in spending of 9.8 per cent.

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“You fared a little bit worse if you can say that if you are looking for gifts under the Christmas tree,” said Doucette about Manitoba’s decline.

Brenda Bell wishes she could only spend $803 on Christmas. She expects to shell out more than $1000.

“I’ve got three kids so its hard to keep it under that amount,” said Bell, who was already Christmas shopping Monday afternoon.

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