The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Canadians gave themselves the gift of debt management over the holidays and started 2013 with confidence, according to the RBC Post-Holiday Spending Poll. About seven in 10 Canadians (69 per cent) kept their holiday spending in check, led by residents in Quebec (72 per cent), British Columbia (70 per cent) and Saskatchewan and Manitoba (70 per cent). Canadians used a variety of strategies to help them stick to their holiday budgets, including avoiding going into debt or increasing their debt loads (41 per cent, up one point from a year ago) or keeping track of spending (31 per cent, up four points from last year). Some survey respondents said they controlled their costs by focusing on only spending what they had (28 per cent, up two points from the 2012 survey). The desire to reach a savings goal also kept some Canadians from spending more than intended (13 per cent, up four points from a year ago). Almost one-third of Canadians (31 per cent, unchanged from last year) said they spent more than intended during the holidays, led by residents in Ontario and Atlantic Canada (tied at 33 per cent each). Nationally, Canadians overspent their budget by an average of $463, down slightly from the $467 overspent from the previous year. Among Canadians who overspent during the holidays, the RBC poll found that most plan to cut back on day-to-day living expenses such as groceries, phone and cable (43 per cent), entertainment (41 per cent), or coffee and lunch money (32 per cent) in order to get back on track. Some Canadians are cutting back on debt either through their use of credit cards (38 per cent) or lines of credit (15 per cent). _ CNW Group
