Bargainista’s list of 2010 Boxing Day Sales

This list will be updated continuously so check it often. You may also want to click through to Bargainista’s comprehensive list on Twitter.

If you find a sale that isn’t listed here please add it by leaving a comment, tweeting or e-mail me and we’ll do our best to post it quickly.

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A new Christmas meal tradition

In keeping with the holiday theme, new regular contributor Kathryn Lagden, shares her 2010 Boxing Day cooking adventure.

This year I’m hosting one of our three family Christmas dinners on Boxing Day. I expect that by December 26 we’ll have had enough turkey and trimmings, so I figured I’d cook up something a little different this year. I decided tourtiere, a dish traditionally served on Christmas eve in Quebec, would be keeping with the festive season while offering my family something a little different.

The idea was the easy part. I’ve never actually made meat pie or pastry before so I was a little nervous about the execution. A trial run to work out the kinks was definitely in order. I settled on the recipe from the Canadian Living website for both the tourtiere and the pastry.

Preparing the filling was fairly straightforward. While I browned the pork I prepared the vegetables and measured out the seasonings. I was a little trepidacious about adding all 3 onions as the quantity seemed to overpower the other ingredients. Not to worry though, the onions cooked down and everything melded together nicely.

I did not add any “summer savory.” I have no idea what this is and I couldn’t find it in the grocery store so I just skipped it. The cloves and cinnamon give this dish a wonderful flavour but I’ll likely add a little rosemary next time as well.

A picture of the filling cooked and ready to pop in the fridge to chill is on the right.

Why was I so nervous about making pastry? Likely because pastry seems to have a reputation as “difficult” and truth be told I didn’t even know where to find lard in the grocery store. (Turns out it’s in the baking aisle, not with the butter in the refrigerated aisle!)

I followed the recipe *exactly* to minimize any risk of poorly turned out pastry. When I divided it into two round disks (pictured right) I thought it looked a bit dry (are those cracks supposed to be there?) but no way was I going to mess with it at this point!

One great thing about this dish is that both the filling and pastry need time to chill in the fridge. So I prepared everything in the morning and later that afternoon it was very easy to roll out the pastry and assemble the pie. Getting all the time consuming tasks done in the morning makes this a great choice for entertaining since you want to be with your guests, not in the kitchen.

The final outcome was pretty darn delicious (if I may say so myself!) The meat was flavourful and the pastry was light so I’m considering the trial run a success! I hope my family enjoys our unique Christmas dinner.

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Bargainista’s list of 2009 Boxing Day Sales

This list will be updated continuously so check it often. You may also want to click through to Bargainista’s comprehensive list on Twitter.

If you find a sale that isn’t listed here please add it by leaving a comment or e-mail me and we’ll do our best to post it quickly.

Sumaya is helping out this year. The ˆES or ˆSK at the end of each tweet represents our intials.

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Loving my Golla laptop bag

Thanks to a generous friend and laptop bag expert extraordinaire, I have a couple awesome laptop bags. Although I don’t need to use them daily, I do use them regularly.

Lately, I’ve been traveling and attending conferences more than ever. I needed something with enough room for my laptop but also for my gadgets (digital camera, Flip video recorder, iPod Touch, cell phone, mic, etc.), related geek paraphernalia and room for things I usually carry in my purse.

On Boxing Day, I was at Future Shop while one of my guys was looking for a reason to part with his money. There was an entire stand dedicated to Golla laptop bags and sleeves for 50% off. I found a great laptop bag/knapsack like the one I’d been eying on a friend last summer, for less than $40.

I grabbed it and haven’t had any regrets. It has several compartments. The one for my laptop holds it perfectly secure. There are all kinds of zipped pockets and pouches for my stuff, plus I can travel in comfort and style.

What features do you look for in a laptop bag?

Check out Funchico.com for contests and discounts on laptop bags and sleeves.

Bargainista’s list of 2008 Boxing Day sales

This list will be updated continuously so check it often. You may also want to click through to my comprehensive list on Twitter. If you find a sale that isn’t listed here please add it by leaving a comment or e-mail me and I’ll do my best to post it quickly.

LUSH – the perfect home spa day is on sale

I’ve always liked LUSH products. I’m more of a shower person. LUSH Bath Bombs are the one thing that motivates me to relax in the bath.

Recently, the marketing folks at LUSH sent me some products to check out. I absolutely loved the fresh citrus aroma of the Avobath Bath Bomb. Not only did my bath smell wonderful, the scent trickled through (but didn’t overpower the whole second floor of my house. Of course I smelled pretty good too!

I still have a couple Vitamin C Toner Tabs to try out and a Seanik Solid Shampoo bar I’m a bit funny about my hair so I’ve been reluctant to test it out. The idea of washing my hair with a bar of soap isn’t terribly appealing. LUSH soaps make amazing hostess gifts too.

What about you? What’s your favourite bath product? Have you ever tried a LUSH shampoo bar, what did you think? Should I give it a try?

This just in… LUSH Boxing Day Sale in stores and online
In-store deal:
What: Buy a LUSH holiday gift and get a 2nd holiday gift (of equal or lesser value) for free or buy any holiday product or any soap and get 2 holiday products or 2 pieces of soap (of equal or lesser value) for free.*
When: Dec. 26 - Jan. 18
Where: Check LUSH’s website for locations across Canada.

Online deal:
What: Buy a holiday product or any soap and get a 2nd one (of the same product) free.*
When: December 26 at 4 a.m. EST
Where: LUSH

*While supplies last – so get out there early to stock up on your favorite LUSH goodies. This offer excludes bulk hair care and cleansers except for body soap.

Free popcorn and drink at AMC Yonge & Dundas 24

In addition to celebrating the holidays with family, I have three other rituals this time of year:
• shopping on Boxing Day;
• catching up on movies; and,
• helping others in the community.

Volunteer Toronto helps people find great places to volunteer. They also provide training and resources to support their community of 400 non-profits in Toronto. They’ve started a program to screen social change films for free for their non-profit community. The first one was in November. It was such a success, they gave away all of their 450 tickets overnight!

Celina Agaton from Volunteer Toronto contacted me because they need our help in order to host another free screening at AMC Yonge & Dundas 24. They need to show AMC that their community can bring people out to AMC Yonge & Dundas 24 theatre.

What’s in it for you?
Enjoy a FREE small popcorn and drink offer at AMC Yonge & Dundas 24 courtesy of Volunteer Torontothis holiday season. Offer expires Dec 31, 2008.

How?
Print out the coupon and take it with you. Even it you aren’t going to the movies, click on the coupon link. (The more clicks and redeemed coupons, the better the chance Volunteer Toronto has securing the theatre.)

So this holiday season, you can enjoy a movie while helping the community at the same time.

Two movies on my list are playing at AMC Yonge & Dundas 24: Slumdog Millionaire and Doubt. What’s on your holiday movie list?

Bargainista’s List of Boxing Day Sales

I’ve already started my list of Boxing Day sales on Twitter. Since not all of you follow me there, I decided I'd bring my Boxing Day tweets to you instead. (Please excuse the duplicate entries. So far, I haven’t figured out how to avoid them.)

This list will be updated continuously so check it often. You may also want to click through to my comprehensive list on Twitter. If you find a sale that isn’t listed here please add it by leaving a comments or e-mail me and I’ll do my best to post it quickly.

Happy Shopping!

Eden

UPDATE: I’ve removed the list of Boxing Day sales. (Jan. 14, 2008)

You click here for the complete list of sales and other shopping info.

Big Box Boxing Day Sale Bungle

Does this message look familiar to you?


Traditionally, Boxing Day is the biggest shopping day in Canada. It’s comparable to the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S.

As I was reading the paper before work yesterday morning, I couldn’t help noticing the big sale flyers from sibling big box electronic stores announcing they were jumping the gun and starting their Boxing Day sales online at 8 p.m. that night.

I expected their websites would be busy and perhaps a bit slow. I also expected them to be prepared for heavy traffic since they put so much effort into promoting their online early-bird sale. I was wrong. When I logged on, I got the message above instead. I couldn’t even access either website until after 11 p.m. I had better luck getting what I wanted shopping in person last year.

I woke up this morning, logged on to Twitter and learned I wasn’t the only one annoyed last night. Mitch Joel sums it up beautifully in How The e-commerce Grinch Store Christmas - A Holiday Season Marketing Disaster.

I imagine the company in question will think twice about jumping the gun next Boxing Day unless they’ve ensured their websites are adequately equipped to deal with customer demand.

I hope other stores take note too, including the one that sent me an e-mail today announcing their online Boxing Day sale had begun. The tag line in their title bar states they are Canada’s #1 brand. Let’s hope they stay true to their word.