Shoppers holiday humbug

It wasn’t such a good holiday season for many Americans, according to a recently released consumer survey. Discover Card’s latest monthly spending report said consumers remain pessimistic.

“Consumers’ sentiments about personal finance are at the lowest point in 12 months,” according to Discover Card’s latest monthly US Spending Monitor.

Although consumers overall actually spent more on the holidays, most of them remain worried about the economy and their ability to spend in 2011, the survey said.

Some 52 percent of respondents said they will be going out to dinner less this year, but that is a little bit less than a year ago. About half plan to spend less on home improvements, although that was also down a little bit from last year, the survey said. And 48 percent of respondents will also spend less on gym memberships or vacations. That is down some 3 percent from last year.

“Consumers are still pessimistic, but not quite as pessimistic as they were a year ago,” said Matthew Towson, a spokesman for the Discover Card Spending Monitor.

The company, which surveyed 8,200 consumers last month, also found that 26 percent of respondents rated their finances as “poor.” That is up 3 percent from the previous month. Only 29 percent of respondents said the economy is improving. But that negative number is down 2 percent from November.