Don’t get hit with buyer’s remorse this week. Consumers tantalized by Black Friday sales have to consider many current economic factors to protect themselves from being baited by retailers.

Like most Americans, less money in your wallet recently has probably helped you to curb some of your non-essential spending, so you may try to justify buying more this holiday season. Retailers, however, are expecting this, and the need to eliminate some inventory has led them to offer some very enticing deals.

A survey by the National Retail Federation reports that 128 million people will shop the weekend after Thanksgiving, down from 135 million last year. Still, sputtering revenues lately have businesses drooling for these numbers. Lower gas prices leave shoppers with a little more spending money, and together with some big deals, even the most frugal consumers may find some advantages for their holiday shopping in current economic conditions. But be careful: don’t fall prey to retailers’ bait for you to spend more this year. Instead, make these deals work for you to save you money on things you already intend to buy and keep impulse spending in check. The deals may be great, but we’re not out of economic hot water just yet, and those credit card bills don’t have Black Friday discounts.

President-elect Barack Obama said he’s planning to give a “jolt” to the economy, but he also claims to be reforming the budget to cut out wasteful spending. I think that’s good advice for holiday shoppers this year.