During this past holiday season, Allison Kirby cut back on spending, shopped around more for deals and gave out more handmade gifts.

“I cut back this year,” Kirby, a sophomore media studies communications major, said, who spent about $75 on her gifts this past holiday season. “I didn’t really spend as much.”

Kirby is among many other consumers who changed their spending habits during the holiday season, while the United States currently faces a financial crisis.

Associate economics professor Carl Campbell said spending was down during this holiday season due to the economy.

“I think people are being more conservative now because they are afraid of losing their jobs,” Campbell said. “People are spending less.”

According to the International Council of Shopping Centers’ Web site, the 2008 November to December holiday sales fell 2.2 percent compared to the 2007 season.

Jeff Reynolds, adjunct economics faculty member and assistant dean of NIU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said consumers have now developed a change in mentality in how they spend their money.

“We are seeing the conscious decision by the consumer to spend less and save more,” Reynolds said. “The question is how long they will have this mentality.”

Reynolds said consumers still accumulated debt this holiday season but at a lower rate than before.

“In the past, people were really inclined to charge on credit,” Campbell said. “Now people are becoming more cautious about their spending in result of the economy.”

Daniel Jurishi, senior mechanical engineering major, said he and his family also took steps to spend less during the holiday season to conserve more to pay bills.

“We had a set amount that we would spend on each other,” Jurishi said. His parents spent about $250 to $300 on him and his two other siblings, while he and his siblings had a $50 to $75 spending limit for each person.

Jurishi said he also shopped around to see who had the best deals, and although he and his family cut back in spending, it did not bother him.

Like Jurishi, Kirby also said she paid attention to store deals when shopping over the holidays, buying everything on sale or clearance.

“The price didn’t matter, it was the meaning behind it,” Kirby said.