Boxing Day Sales - Are they good for your Credit Card Debt?

Being christmas eve, many people have their minds on boxing day sales already. Getting all of those wonderful deals. MMMM... more savings...

Can you actually afford this enticing boxing day sales? while it may be good to continue that christmas consumeristic glow, I get a sense that we don't really need some of the stuff we're going to buy in those boxing day sales.

Questions You need to ask yourself

• Can you afford the boxing day sales items?
  Here are the questions I will ask you.. are you buying your purchases with cash or on credit card? Can you afford the item. Do you need the item?
  If you have lots of money and don't really need the item, then it doesn't really matter if you buy it or not.
  
  If you can't afford the item, and are just trying to make ends meet, then I strongly recommend that you think twice before gulping up boxing day sales purchases.
  
  Again, If you're purchasing sale items with cash, and you can afford the rest of your bills, then that's a great idea.
  
  
• Are you putting it on your credit card?
  Are you putting your boxing day sales items on credit.?
  I ask the question.. why are you doing this?
  If you're making your purchases with credit, and don't have the cash to make the purchases, then that's a bad idea. Sorry to be a wet blanket. The price you'll pay for the items will be the purchase price, plus the expensive interest costs that you'll pay the credit card companies.
  
  Are you willing to pay for the item for the next 12+ months?
  Do you really need the item that bad?
  Can you afford the interest costs on top of the purchase price of the item?
  
  
• Do you need the items?
  This is the bottom line question. I get the feeling that people go to boxing day sales because they're getting discounted prices on products. It's fun to get discounts.. every body likes to save money.
  
  Having said that.. do you NEED the items you're purchasing? Are you going to get good usage from these boxing day purchases, or are they going to sit in your house collecting dust, and you never use them?
  
  If you really need these items that are on sale, and you're going to use them then by all means buy them.
  
  My advice is... don't get sucked into the excitement of getting discounts, just for the sake of getting discounts on things you don't need.
  
  
• Current Economic Crisis
  It is my hopes that one of the benefits of the current economic crisis, is that people will feel ok with not spending their credit cards to the max.
  
  With all of the news of the current recession, I'm hoping that people will take heed, and stop and think before they dig themselves deeper in debt. This logic is bad for the retailer, but good for the consumer.
  
  Again, it's fun to get deals on boxing day... however, it's even more prudent to save your money as an emergency reserve.
  
  You don't need to spend every cent you've got on the excitement of getting good deals at Canadian retailers.
  
  However, if you've got lots of money and can afford to spend it, then here are some websites of Canadian Retailers.
  
  http://www.thebay.ca, http://www.hbc.ca, home outfitters, Zellers, Sears, HomeSense, Winners, Leons
  
  These are some of the online retailers I found.. If you've got the time and money, then it's a good idea to shop online to see what's on sale before you spend money on gas driving around.
  
  I hope you'll make the right decisions for your boxing day sales.