Good Morning! I see you’re up, dressed in your track clothes and running shoes, ready to tackle the crowds at the Boxing Day Sales.

What? You’re not going out for the $29 television or the $50 leather couch at Brault Matineau? Afraid you’ll break a hip? Well, you can stay home, then, have another cup of coffee and join my “The Deals Are All Yours” Club.

It occurred to me recently that I haven’t been out to Boxing Day sales in a few years. And it used to be one of my favourite holiday traditions, taught to me by the Greatest Shopper of All Time: my mother.

The day AFTER Christmas was her biggest shopping day of the year. I never understood how she could ramp up to such a high shopping spirit the day after we had consumed ourselves into oblivion.

But she went out with the best of them.

Now that I’m in my 60s, I can’t imagine what I would want or need so much that I would suffer the lineups and the crushing crowds at the cash.

I went out one year and got a leather couch, but I don’t need another one. My bed is fine, the television works, and the dining room table and chairs are not tired of welcoming the guests who use them. When you’re my age, you’re not really setting up a home, so most of the bigticket items are in place.

Perhaps, if you were downsizing to a smaller apartment, you might need new furniture and appliances that would justify joining the Boxing Day throngs. But moving usually happens in July and do you really want an extra living room set sitting in the living room for the next six months?

You might think a shopping deal is worth it if you need a new appliance. But in all my days, I have never known a stove, fridge or washer and dryer to conk out around Christmas. They usually do that in High Price Season – and they break down in pairs, never one at a time. My dryer is making a funny noise but it still works, so it doesn’t seem right to chuck it out just yet. And I am curious to see which other appliance will accompany it to the grave yard – my coffeemaker, the toaster, the blender? I’m in no position to predict that one.

So if they can’t entice us into the sales for the furniture and appliances, just what would we consider important enough to stand in line for?

You don’t need to go any farther than the computer screen to find out our spending habits. There’s all manner of market research on this issue because businesses want our cash as much as they want the cash teens fling around on tech gadgets.

(Unfortunately, most of this information is American. I would apologize for this except it’s not my fault. When Stephen Harper cancelled the long-form census, he froze out most new information of this type for Canadians after 2006. So don’t be surprised if businesses think we really want more stretch pants in XXXXXL sizes. Thanks, Steve.)

I was fascinated to find out that most of the places where boomers spend their money are not part of the 75% OFF BOXING DAY SALE! We dole out 30 per cent more of our income on food than younger people do (thanks to our Battle of the Bulge). We hand over a lot of our earnings on travel (after Christmas is not deep discount time), exercise facilities (I guess you could join the lineups for treadmills), cosmetic surgery (50 per cent off tummy-tucks, anyone?) and university courses.

Bottom line: Most of what we spend on ourselves at this age is Boxing Day-challenged.

There is one aspect of our spending, however, that fits perfectly into Dec. 26: in 2009, in the U.S., grandparents spent $52 billion on their grandchildren, and I am sure Canadian grandparents are just as generous with their own. We spend billions collectively on clothes, toys, entertainment, even on our grandchildren’s education. A recent study even titled itself: The Grandparents’ Economy. Yes, it’s true: we love our grandbabies even more than ourselves.

So, put the running shoes back on. Gulp down that coffee. Pull out a cane if you have to, to manage in the crowds. There’s lots of money to be saved on gifts for the grandchildren.

And sorry if I elbowed you out of the way, but my granddaughter would look totally adorable in that little fleece hoodie – marked down 50 per cent.

j_torge@hotmail.com

Tags: Apartment for Sale, Buy Home Today

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