Happy Cyber Monday!

As the closely-watched Black Friday weekend winds down, a National Retail Federation survey conducted over the weekend confirms the expected: more people spent less. According to NRF’s Black Friday shopping survey, 195 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up from 172 million last year. However, the average spending over the weekend dropped to $343.31 per person from $372.57 a year ago. Total spending reached an estimated $41.2 billion.

According to the survey, nearly one-third (32.2%) of shoppers purchased toys, an increase of 12.9 percent from last year. Additionally, more people purchased sporting goods (12.6% vs. 11.4% last year), personal care or beauty items (22.4% vs. 19.0%) and gift cards (21.2% vs. 18.7%). The most popular purchases were of clothing (0.9%) and books (40.3%), which remained nearly unchanged over last year.

Apparently more shoppers headed out for bargains while it was still dark outside – proving that the effects of turkey stuffing wear off rather quickly. According to the survey, nearly one-third of shoppers (31.2%) were at the stores by 5 AM - good grief.

As millions of shoppers gear up for Cyber Monday, one-fourth of Americans shopping over the weekend (28.5%) were shopping online – that means with some form of plastic.

So, as you prepare to embark on apparently the most non-productive output day for the American worker, here are a few sites to consider on your quest for the perfect deal.

Gottadeal.com – their motto is, “Why Pay Retail?” and claim to update their site several times each day

PriceGrabber.com - an Experian company

CyberMonday.com – powered by Shop.org which is a division of the National Retail Federation