The holidays are a time of cheer, gift giving and lots and lots of amazing food. But at what point does the present-buying season cause spending to balloon so above budget for some Americans that they are still carrying last year’s debt into the new holiday season.

How many people are we talking about here? A whopping 14% of U.S. adults have still not paid off Christmas 2016 as of October 2017, according to Nerdwallet’s 2017 Consumer Holiday Shopping Report.* That’s almost 34 million people who may have entered the 2017 holiday shopping season carrying the Financial Ghosts of Christmas Past.

According to cnbc.com, “millennials are the worst culprits here: 24 percent still haven’t paid off credit card debt incurred during the 2016 shopping season, while 16 percent of Gen-Xers haven’t and only 8 percent of boomers haven’t.” The average American will plan to spend approximately $660 this holiday, but will they roll that debt into next year’s holiday season too?

There is good news, though. In 2016, 43% of Baby Boomers, 40% Generation X and 49% of Millennials stuck to their budget and paid off the holiday spending quickly.

Wat can you do to try to avoid carrying debt into next holiday season?

According to Nerdwallet.com, “Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., co-wrote ‘All Your Worth’ with her daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi. In it, they recommend a budget where you spend roughly 50% of your after-tax dollars on necessities, no more than 30% on wants, and at least 20% on savings and debt repayment.” So, if you take this rule and apply it to holiday shopping and spending, you’d spend no more than 30% on things you want, so be careful to separate what you want to buy vs. what you need to buy.

Keep an eye on sales – Just because it’s on a sale rack doesn’t necessarily mean it’s less valuable than the shiny original price tag, it just simply means that it’s saving you money. Consider shopping all things clearance before making purchases on the same item for twice the price.

Jingle Bell Rock -it -out of the park by paying off debt immediately. Pay each monthly statement on time, and don’t let your debt keep rolling under next year’s Christmas tree. You’ll thank yourself in the long run.

Check out Fa la la LendingPoint to apply now for a personal loan to help consolidate holiday debt. It’s a whole lot more convenient paying off one bill, in comparison to several different credit cards. Let us try to help you stay on track this year. Besides, racking up revolving debt is naughty, but paying off debt is nice. Remember that when you’re shopping this season.

LendingPoint is a personal loan provider specializing in NearPrime consumers. Typically, NearPrime consumers are people with credit scores in the 600s. If this is you, we’d love to talk to you about how we might be able to help you meet your financial goals. We offer loans from $1,000 to $25,000 with terms from 24 to 48 months, all with fixed payments and simple interest.

Get started with your loan application right now.