Are you getting ready for your holiday shopping or are you neck deep in it already? Along with the post Thanksgiving holiday shopping came some interesting statistics in the news about our shopping habits. Thinking about budgets, credit cards, and cash typically accompanies many holiday shopping plans, and rightly so. According to the November 20, 2010 Suze Orman personal finance show holiday shoppers will spend an average of $689.00 during the season. They will also spend an additional $107.50 on themselves.Another interesting story was the increase in online shopping. This year you may have noticed many more online sales and pre-Black Friday specials offered on retailers’ websites. According to the National Retail Federation: “The holiday season may be merry and bright for online retailers, according to results of Shop.org’s eHoliday Study conducted by BIGresearch. Nearly two-thirds of retailers (63.8%) expect their company’s online sales to grow by fifteen percent or more compared to last holiday season, up from less than half of retailers (45.8%) who had those expectations last year”.Backing up the claim that retailers are planning on a healthy increase in online revenue was the fact presented by NBC news on November 26, 2010. They stated that people who shop online spend 24.6% more than those shopping in stores! Certainly, that has to be enticing retailers to lure us onto their websites during the holidays!Now that we have reviewed how much we are spending and where we are spending it consider this statistic offered by the Suze Orman show as well. 13 million people are still paying for the purchases they charged during the holidays in 2009!The LA Times reported that 23 million people will do last minute shopping on Christmas Eve in 2010. “According to a survey released Tuesday by the International Council of Shopping Centers, 23.1 million consumers, or 15%, plan to shop on the day before Christmas.”The offers presented to us may look very appealing, but it is important to keep perspective about your own economic well being. Paying interest on your purchases for a year, or longer, could easily evaporate the savings you found during the sales. Consider only buying the deals that fall within your budget and that you have been saving and planning for, or find other gift giving alternatives.