Washington ? When Americans head to the malls this holiday season, their shopping lists probably will be a little shorter than they were last year.

When they were asked to predict their holiday spending, about one-third of consumers said they planned to spend less this year, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Consumer Federal Credit Union of America and the Credit Union National Assn.

“Consumers tend to err on the side of caution when they set their budgets — even though they might exceed that budget,” said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center.

The survey of 1,017 adults was conducted Nov. 13-16 by Opinion Research Corp. International and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

U.S. households are expected to spend an average of $455 on gifts during the holiday season — down from last year’s average of $483 — according to a similar survey of holiday spending intentions released Monday by The Conference Board, a business-research center in New York.

The board’s survey of 5,000 households was conducted Nov. 1-17 by NFO WorldGroup and has a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.

Lingering concerns over the economy and personal debt are among the reasons that people are pinching their pennies this year, according to the two credit union groups.

When asked how they would spend a bonus of $5,000, 46 percent of consumers said they would use the unexpected money to pay off debts, according to the two credit union groups; 37 percent said they would add it to their savings and investments, and only 15 percent said they would spend it.