Did you overspend this past festive season?

Earlier this year, many thought that South Africans were going to encounter financial hardship due to over expenditure the past festive season. However, Justmoney's January poll suggests otherwise with more than 40% of its polled users stating that they had resisted the urge to splurge this festive season because of tough economic times.

When asked the question "Did you overspend this festive season?" 43% of respondents replied with a recession busting "No, times are tough". While this information may come as a shock to many, it is news that hopefully transcended past opinion and resolution, and was put into practise by most ordinary South Africans.

"Hopefully, people have been as frugal with the festive season spending as this poll suggests they have been, but unfortunately our application stats for January may actually point to the opposite. We usually see a spiked interest for personal loans and short term credit over the January period, and last month was no exception" says Andy Gilder, General Manager of the site.

When asked the question "Did you overspend this festive season?" Justmoney users were fairly evenly split, although the majority pointed towards a well managed financial situation over the festive season.

The full results of the poll read as follows:

43% - No, times are tough
33% - Yes, but not as much as last year
24% - Of Course!

"We hope that those South Africans that did spend a little extra this Christmas have started the year by drawing up a budget and are planning to make amends for the monetary over-indulgence of the festive and holiday season - setting out a budget and sticking to it is the first thing every South African household should do in 2010."