Each year, a number of respected polling agencies and retail trade associations conduct their surveys to forecast how the holiday season is going to shake out. Will people spend more? Will they come out in droves or stay home to shop online?

This year it looks like shoppers are watching their wallets, according to Accenture’s annual shopping survey. The firm revealed that 62 percent of respondents said they would look for a discount of  30 percent or more before they would make a purchase. This is up 10 percent from last year, when a 20 percent discount was enough to seal the deal. The survey also said that 45 percent of shoppers are planning to use price-matching policies to find rock-bottom prices at the stores they want to visit.

An article in Forbes Magazine noted that people are practicing more self-restraint than last year when it comes to treating themselves. We all love to buy ourselves a little something once in awhile and December seems like the perfect time. But the National Retail Federation’s annual survey said that people have learned a lesson from the belt-tightening of previous holiday seasons and will be sticking to their lists and budgets more closely instead of making impulse buys for themselves.