If you’re planning on cutting back on your spending this holiday season, you aren’t alone according to a top analytics company.

55-percent of Canadians will spend less this Christmas and the main reason is debt anxiety.

Julie Kuzmic, Equifax Canada’s Director of Consumer Advocacy, says this is the right time of year to be thinking about our finances. “It’s a great time to be thinking about it.”

“November is actually financial literacy month here in Canada and the theme for this year’s financial literacy month is ‘take control, take charge of your finances’ so what what better opportunity to make sure you’re doing that than looking into the high spending time that we see at the end of the year.”

Kuzmic says it’s kind of a good news/bad news situation. “I’m sure that some of the retailers, taking a look at these numbers, might be less than pleased to see that people may be to spend a bit less this year. On the other hand there is a positive that people are paying attention to their finances.”

She added it’s a good sign people are reigning in their spending before it’s too late. “People are being realistic about what they actually can manage at this time of year and that really does serve everybody quite well in the end when you don’t start the downward spiral of people losing control and starting to fall behind in payments.”