Happy Boxing Day! You have managed to make it through Christmas Day, and now you must figure out whether you are a Boxing Day person or not. Remember, the Boxing Day Main Event is You vs. Your Debt, so don’t add to it! (yes, I realize that Boxing day has nothing to do with pugilism)
Things Not To Buy on Boxing Day
As a public service, here is a list of things that you should not buy on Boxing Day:
- A pet or any kind of pet larger than a gerbil, the SPCA is full of animals that were bought on a whim. Are there boxing day pet sales?
- Wrapping paper or any kind of Christmas decorations, you are not getting a good deal, you are taking steps towards being a full-out hoarder. I don’t care if the stuff is free, you have to store it, you’ll forget about it and if you are lucky throw it out, keep your money!
- A car. Seriously, you are buying something over $20,000 on a boxing day sale? If you can impulse buy something that is that expensive, you really have a problem.
- Construction supplies, unless you are about to build a new house, 20 sheets of dry wall for $2 a sheet cheaper is not a deal!
- A frozen turkey, it’s not going to keep until next Christmas, you will waste more money on the electricity keeping it cold in your freezer.
What is Acceptable to Buy on Boxing Day
- Presents for 2nd or 3rd Christmas. If anyone has an extended family and more than 1 Christmas, Boxing Day is a fantastic day to get your Christmas Shopping finished (if you have a list).
- Something that your Grandparents gave you money to buy. I used to get a picture of something and was told to buy it at the Boxing Day sales (good idea).
The question you must ask yourself today is, “Do I need to go stand in line with a bunch of crazy people to buy something that you aren’t sure you need.”
Previous Boxing Days?
I have written on the topic of Boxing Day a few times.
- Boxing Day? Big Bloody Deal! was my first rant about the day. In 2006 there were sales, but were they that exciting?
- Let the Boxing Quarter Begin does sum up the entire concept of Boxing “day”, it just keeps going on.
- Just because it’s on sale, another classic rant about impulse buying the day after Christmas, 2008.
- Holiday Cheer Volume 4 got lazy in 2009 and just put out a list of posts from that year.
- Carnival of Money Stories: Happy Pseudo Boxing Day! Back in the day when Blogging Carnivals were all the rage (2009).
- Sales and What is the Price?!? started to figure out the connection between Black Friday and Boxing Day sales. Neither really saved you much, did they? Not really in 2010.
- Happy Pseudo Boxing Day was just really a best of kind of post, no real commentary on Boxing Day itself.
- Mayhem and Sunday’s Best (on Monday) it seems that Boxing Day was an excuse for me to post a best of posts list? This article seems to prove the point?
- Advice for the day in 2012? Don’t buy crap, which is good advice any time. If something you need is on sale, buy it, if not, don’t!
- One Thing You Can Buy on the day is to buy something you need.
- Mayhem is always present on Boxing Day, but remember just because it is on sale, doesn’t mean you have to buy it.
- The 12 Days of Christmas Debt is something to think about on Boxing Day? Maybe think about that at Thanksgiving?
- Weirdest Boxing Day Ever? What do you expect during a Pandemic, I suppose?
- Happy Boxing Day 2023! Will we return to the mayhem we are used to?
Just want to pipe up that a fuller freezer is a more efficient one, so from that perspective the turkey won’t cost extra to store if you have the space; keeping it there until next October is of course unacceptable.
As for the car purchase, as an impulse buy, yes, that’s a terrible move. However, if you planned to buy a car anyway, it sounds like waiting until Boxing Day could save you a good chunk of change.
Agreed, if you were planning on buying something, and you knew it was going to be it’s cheapest on Boxing Day, by all means, join the maddening crowd, but don’t impulse shop. I was planning on buying Anti-Virus software and got a better deal.
I think I found another acceptable purchase. My son needs a small bracket to mount the new solid-state drive I bought him for Christmas. At least he’ll be at a computer store and not some crazy department store.
BTW, the last time I clicked on your “Notify me of follow-up comments by email” I got an email asking me to agree to subscribe. I ignored it thinking I might be agreeing to more than just followup comments to this post. If others react the same way, then it’s hard to get a conversation going if people aren’t getting notified of further comments. I think that if I click the box, that’s enough of an acknowledgement that I want further comments by email.
I’ll look into the comments thing, it’s all quite complicated I find.
Great tips. I certainly don’t want to become a hoarder on Boxing Day! I have enough stuff (junk?) in my home and don’t need to add to it. I’ll most probably stay home and avoid the crowds.