Halloween is over and it is time for me to start thinking about what I am going to get my wife and daughter for Christmas. Or should we get one big family gift and little gifts for each one? Maybe we should do a mini Christmas gift?
Holiday Outlook NRB survey reports, and Website Magazine reports say that retailers are expecting shoppers to buy early. The project numbers say that Christmas buying will be slightly less than last year. What does that mean to me?
Watching the newspaper ads and comparing is the place to start to find those real bargains, this Christmas. I guarantee you that store will be luring you to spend money with them.
If I don’t have all the money I need? I don’t want to waste my money on high credit card interest. There is an old solution that is coming back. It is call the Lay-a-way.
The layaway is back. Years ago it was a big thing to put a small amount down for some Christmas gift. Just a few days before Christmas that gift was paid off. The you could take it home and wrap it from that special someone.
Stores got tired of storing all those future Christmas gifts. They found that they could make more money offering those Christmas items with 6 easy payments that would be hard to make. A $100 gift that was on sale for $89, would bring into the store $102 with in store credit at a modest interest rate.
Now with so many people falling behind on payments. Stores are shifting back to the layaway to get people buying again. Kmart, and Sears were known for offering in store layaway. Select Best Buy stores are offering layaway. Kmart, Sears as well as HSN are leading the way with offering online layaways.
Layaways don’t charge interest for hold your items. A modest $15 or $20 your future gifts on hold. You can pay if off all at pick up time or in a few smaller payments.
What I like about the layaway is no interested. In my opinion interest a waste of money. Buying things with someone else’s money is what got us into The Great Recession.
