How Much Will We Spend on Holiday Shopping in Rochester?

Black Friday is just a few days away, so if you're revving up those credit cards and are heading out shopping later this week, how does your holiday spending compare to the average holiday budget here in Rochester?

Thanks to the gang at Wallet Hub, we know that, according to their survey, the average holiday spending budget here in the Med City is $738. That puts us at #191 (between Aurora, Illinois and Washington, DC) and well in the upper half of the 570 cities they surveyed throughout the country.

The city with the highest holiday spending budget this holiday season is Palo Alto, California (at a whopping $2,821); while the city with the lowest budget is Brockton, Massachusetts (at only $71).

So, just how did they arrive at those figures? Well, as usual, it's complicated. But, the article says they looked at several factors:

"1) Income, 2) Age, 3) Debt-to-Income Ratio, 4) Monthly Income-to-Monthly Expenses Ratio and 5) Savings-to-Monthly Expenses Ratio. Our calculation is based on WalletHub’s proprietary algorithm, which takes into account the aforementioned five factors to determine the holiday budget for a particular city."

So that's it-- $738 here in Rochester. If you ask me, that figure is a bit high. I'm guessing my wife and I won't spend that much on all our holiday shopping, though, I'm sure we actually spend more than I'm thinking  we do.

Are you spending more or less than $738 on the holidays this year?