The kids are excited to show off their packs

The day after Christmas, here in Canada, brings boxing day. A great day to go shopping for all those things you can use. Since getting married, Charo and I have taken this day to purchase things we need for the family. One year we bought a TV, and another we bought a vaccuum. This year we purchased the backpacks the kids would use for their year long trip.

I did a lot of research and found that the packs we were looking for were at Atmosphere. They did not advertise, and when I arrived I was pleased to see they had a 20% off sale on all backpacks. I snapped up their packs. I think I was there for a grand total of 10 minutes. I then went to Sail to purchase Daniela’s pack as they did not have the size I wanted for her. I was number 5 in line. Little did I know they were giving out lottery cards for scratching at the register, and you could receive 10, 15, 25, or 500 dollars off your purchase. I’d like to say I was the $500 winner, but I had to settle on the $10 prize. Like Atmosphere there was 20% off but with the bonus $10 it was like I received a 30% savings. The story doesn’t end there.

The next day we received an email from the last place we would have thought about looking for backpacks. Scouts Canada runs an online shop and we saved on extra $20 on each of the boys packs. Sorry Atmosphere, had to return the packs.

What did I learn?

  1. There is no need to purchase things for full price. Even when people say certain things never go on sale, at some point everything goes on sale!

  • If you’re looking to take a trip like this in the future it’s really worth to plan out your needs to help save some money.

Marco showing off his backpack

Mateo and Ironman showing off the new backpack
What packs did we buy?

For the boys we purchased the Osprey Ace 50 Liter bag. We haven’t properly adjusted them yet and will do this in shortly.

For Daniela, we also went with an Osprey. We had tried the Ace 50 Liter but it seemed a little to large for her, so we decided to go one size down with the Ace 38 Liter.

The plan now is to fill them up and have the kids practice carrying their pack in the house, then the neighbourhood. This way they’ll know what to expect! When packing we’ll have to remember we aren’t packing to capacity, but to weight. We want to keep the pack to 20% of their body weight. That puts the boys packs to about 20 pounds and Daniela’s pack to about 15 pounds maximum.

That’s one more things we can check off our list.

Thanks for reading and happy adventuring!