Servicemember families reining in holiday spending
America’s career military families intend to tighten their belts again this holiday season, making gift spending a major focus of their frugality.
First Command’s annual holiday spending survey reveals that 94 percent of middle-class military families (commissioned officers and senior NCOs in pay grades E-6 and above with household incomes of at least $50,000) plan to cut back this year, statistically unchanged from the past three years. More than one third (37 percent) expect to spend less on gifts this year, making it their No. 1 cost-cutting strategy for the holidays.
The penny-pinching urge is strong for the 2015 holiday season. Military shoppers plan on average expenditures of $786, roughly half the $1,464 they estimate having spent last year on holiday gifts. Two out of five families (40 percent) say they expect to spend less than $500.
Military families also anticipate reducing their gift giving expenses by:
- Setting a maximum amount for gifts (32 percent)
- Giving gifts to fewer people (30 percent)
- Giving fewer gifts per person (29 percent)
- Buying gifts at discount stores (24 percent)
- Making gifts (17 percent)
Black Friday surfaced as another frugal spending strategy in the survey. Two out of five survey respondents said they planned to do most or all of their holiday shopping on the day after Thanksgiving.
Other ways military families are cutting back for the holidays include spending less on travel (34 percent), decorations (26 percent) and food (22 percent).
The 2015 holiday shopping season marks the eighth consecutive year that the Index has pointed to leaner spending in military families, reflecting a year-around dedication to frugal living.
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