(The Center Square) – A new study found Michigan parents spend more per child than the national average this Christmas.
Parents nationwide are expected to spend $461 per child, compared to Michigan’s $588 per child. This is according to a survey from CouponBirds.
Even though parents are not expecting to cut back on Christmas this year, 49% of parents are anticipating going into debt to pay for it.
Most of those will use credit cards to pay for Christmas gifts, while 21% plan to use buy now, pay later services, which have skyrocketed over the past few years.
Michigan parents will spend an average amount compared to other states.
New Jersey ($712), Texas ($659), and Pennsylvania/Massachusetts ($648) will have the highest amount of spending by parents, while South Dakota ($247), West Virginia ($255), and Nebraska ($263) will have the lowest.
Of all the parents polled, 9% will spend more than $1,000 per child, while only 4% will spend less than $100.
Experts are also anticipating record overall spending on Christmas this year.
According to the National Retail Federation, consumers in the U.S. will spend an average of $902 on core holiday items including gifts, decorations, food and other holiday-related purchases this year. That is up $27 or 3.1% from last year’s holiday budgets.
It also found that, while the majority of Americans shopping online for the holiday season, 45% also anticipated shopping at discount stores.
How much you spend will also depend on where you live.
A study by WalletHub examined over 550 cities throughout the United States. Troy will have the largest Christmas budget of the cities polled in Michigan, with $2,561.
Michigan’s lowest Christmas budget is in Flint, where residents are expected to spend an average of $678.
