Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for the ‘Boxing Day’ Category

For my regular readers, I am so lazy swamped over the holidays that I am taking some time off and putting up a “Best of” anthology until the New Year (January 4th to be exact). Enjoy two Best of posts a day over the Holidays and have yourself a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Well that was a blur wasn’t it? The toys, the noise and excitement and then the Boxing Day sales, that will now go on for the next 4 months, isn’t capitalism a wonderful thing? For most of us, we get Monday off as “Boxing Day”, but fear not good reader, I still have my shovel out digging up old “nuggets” from the past year.

The Most Hideous (2009/02/09)

I opened my Ottawa Citizen on Saturday and I saw this picture and I was hit by a combination of revulsion, anger, and lurid curiosity…..

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Boxing Day: Just Because it’s on sale  (2008/12/26)

… doesn’t mean you have to buy it!

This is the mantra you should be repeating to yourself as you walk through the Boxing Day sales.

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Car or Bus? (2009/08/11)

That is one of the big questions I have to think about given my new appointment.

In my previous job, there really was no reason to take the bus because: …….

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… doesn’t mean you have to buy it!

This is the mantra you should be repeating to yourself as you walk through the Boxing Day sales.

Just because the “Deluxe Cheese Straightener” is 75% off,  do you really need it? Impulse buying is what Boxing Day sales are all about, if you don’t have a plan on what you want to buy.

Mrs. Caj was pointing an accusatory finger at me when I told her about this posting, because we did manage to find a Wii Fit on December 23rd, by simply walking into a Best Buy at 8:27 PM walking into the aisle where the Wii Fit would be, picking one out of the just opened box and walking away with it. Mrs. Caj and I chuckled the whole way out of the store.

Was this impulse buying? I’ll plead sort of guilty, because we did have some money left over (cash given to us by a relative, thus this was bought with cash) and we were planning on buying the Fit, however, we had also decided that we were going to wait until the next birthday to get it. Is this impulse buying? I’ll plead guilty on this one.

Do I Really Need This?

Remember as you wander through the aisles of RABID shoppers, if you aren’t trying to get something you planned to buy, you are simply impulse buying (or doing some retail therapy), and that is a mistake.

Boxing Day sales used to be a one day type thing in Canada, then they became a week long event, now they seem to start December 1st and end March 30th! This is not a sale folks, this is an excuse to get you in the darn store to buy crap you do not want or need. My Mother used to buy wrapping paper and that was about it.

If you go to one of these sales, know what you are going to buy and don’t be swayed by the first shiny bobble you see. I looked at all of my favorite electronic stores (who have been having an On Line Boxing Day sale since 8:00 PM on the 24th of December) and see a couple of things I’d like, but not enough to attempt to get into the stores for 6:00 AM when they open to get one of the 10 that is guaranteed in each store, that is for sure!

Why not enjoy another day of peace and quiet and maybe go out on Friday? Yes all the “best buys” will be gone, but at least you may not get run over by over zealous shoppers in the parking lots?

I may rant about Boxing day and such at the end of all of this, but I will attempt to make this my last posting about finances and Christmas.

• Christmas cards are not late if they have been mailed before Christmas day (that means even if I mail them on Christmas day they are not late). Late Christmas cards are the ones that show up in July, there is no LATE in Christmas, just delayed.
• If you are paying bills, remember to get them done TODAY because they won’t be “paid” until the 27th if you don’t (I got burned on that one once).
• I once did buy something useful at a Boxing Day sale, but it was mostly due to the fact that I needed something, AND it was on sale, AND I got there and there was still some left. Boxing Day sales seem a little too much for me. (it was a Stereo Amplifier).
• My Christmas this year is astounding even before it happens, because I have had an amazing year, and really don’t need any gifts (however, I won’t ask anyone to return them either).

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope you enjoy your Riches as much as I do (no I am not talking about money for once).

This was originally posted on Boxing Day last year, after I had returned from the “sales” this year promises to bring the same lack of enthusiasm:

So this is the first boxing day I have spent in Ottawa in 20 years. I grew up in Montreal, and Boxing Day there was simple, all stores opened at noon and away you go (some had sales, etc.,), but I kept hearing about HUGE SALES and GREAT BARGAINS and people lined up for blocks and over $1.4B spent today alone (the second biggest day of buying in the year), all I can say is, Really?

I went out this morning to get some milk and bought some storage containers at 1/2 price ($1.49, great buy). We went to Staples, Wal-Mart, and Indigo along with a grocery store, and it felt like a Sunday. Wal-Mart looked a little whacky, I must admit, but the craziest thing I saw was the RETURNs line! Why would you go to a store to return something on Boxing Day, unless you had no life and wanted to spend a long time in line? A lot of stores don’t even allow returns on Boxing Day, so what is the point?

No big whoop here. No huge bargains, no big screen tvs, I think we bought some cheap Christmassy tea towels, and I looked at the “Big Hauler” train set at Loblaws, but that is about it. Boxing Day? Leave it to the pugilists!

I don’t even think I am going to go out for Boxing Day this year, I may simply visit some folks who I haven’t seen in a long time.