As the Christmas passed and the stores are removing their decorations customers are about to put aside their wallets again. The sales boom recorded during Thanksgiving and Christmas season was not a sign of consumer spending resurrection, say analysts and shoppers themselves.

"At this point I refuse to put anything on credit. If I don't have the money, I don't buy it," said Jeff McErlain, a Brooklyn, New York, musician shopping at upscale department store Saks on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue on Wednesday.

He plans to remain thrifty in the coming months, a sentiment echoed by other U.S. consumers.

"I have to contain myself, because I am not working as much," said Abdiel Munoz, a New York-based freelance photographer.

"They put off purchases and they want to spend a little bit more," said Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi. But shoppers are not returning to the "high spending, high borrowing" seen during the boom, he said.

Meantime, consumer confidence has certainly improved. Thus, the University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Index for December came to its highest level in six months, and personal income edged upward in October and November, supporting the fifth straight monthly gain in U.S. consumer spending, according to data released on Thursday.