I am usually overly prepared for Christmas. In years past, I began shopping in mid-August for the holiday despite it being nearly four months away. This year with three kids, a recent move and a host of other “stuff” that has occurred, we reached the middle of October and had not made one purchase.
It is not the expense of Christmas, it is the fact that it hits you in one or two really big chunks. Although you might add it up as you go along, the shock of “your total is $225” at the register makes you inhale deeply and then sigh. So this year we decided to try something different: layaway. We decided to go with Kmart and the results have been wonderful.
First, layaway allows you to pay bi-weekly for a small down payment. With Kmart, you get a few other bonuses in addition. The first is that you get a seven day price promise. This means if you buy it, place it on layaway and it goes on sale in their stores within seven days you get your price adjusted to the sale price. This is great because without a doubt everything seems to go on sale during the holidays the week after I buy it! The other thing that is great about Kmart’s program is that you can go on line and shop, and then choose to either pay for an item or place it on layaway if it is available in your local store. This makes budgeting easy and without a doubt, more organized spending. You can see exactly what you are spending and how you will pay. This was definitely more efficient and easy to manage. Kmart is also offering no fees for layaway so that means that you are paying with no interest and no fees which is much better than using your credit card.
Currently, there are also codes available throughout the Internet that can also give you savings like “10% off any online purchase” or savings on specific amounts spent. You can use these for your online layaway purchases. If you choose to go in the store and shop, you can also use Catalina coupons and manufacturer coupons for in-store purchases that you have for your holiday shopping. I was able to do some shopping online and some shopping in the store where I could maximize my online and coupon savings with five different coupon’s and/or Catalina coupons. So far this shopping season we have three layaway accounts all started at different times and have saved nearly $100 on gifts. The savings just keep piling up!
The biggest downside to the layaway is that if your local store does not have the item you want in stock, then you cannot add it to the layaway even if you are ordering online. This happened when we went to get the bike of our sons dreams. However, combined with the sale price and an online coupon that included free shipping, we did end up with an $80 bike for just over $50. Still a huge saving for such a great bike.
So give it a try! It is like charging it to a credit card without having to pay all the interest! We are so happy we tried layaway and think we will defiantly be doing it again!
