See The Average Holiday Budgets In New Jersey

NEW JERSEY — The holiday season is just a few weeks away, and shoppers across New Jersey are getting their lists ready. Ahead of the Black Friday rush, personal finance website WalletHub compared the average budgets of 570 cities across the country.

To determine the ranking, WalletHub considered the following factors: income, age. debt-to-income ratio, monthly income-to-monthly expenses ratio and savings-to-monthly expenses ratio.

Flower Mound, Texas had the highest budget in the country at $3,427. Miami, Florida, meanwhile, was the lowest at just $115.

Toms River, Clifton and Trenton were all included in the ranking. Toms River was the highest, ranking at number 71 overall at $1,571. Clifton was not far behind at $1,451, ranking at number 88. Trenton was near the bottom of the list, coming in at number 564, with a budget of just $398.

Jared Watson, an assistant professor of marketing at New York University, said that "we can expect a rise in spending as people look for ways to inject excitement into the more mundane routines, we have formed due to the pandemic."

"To avoid overspending, it might be easiest to use a commitment device," Watson suggested. "I would recommend either putting your allocated budget on a prepaid VISA or holding it in cash, separate from any other cash you might carry ... When you run out, if you try to overspend, you have to consciously acknowledge that you have depleted your budget, which should add enough friction to the decision to stop some people from violating their goal."

With reporting by Rachel Nunes, Patch Staff.