Why I LOVE Layaway!

Okay summer is here, but whether we look forward to it or not school will be starting up before we know it.  One thing I always DO NOT look forward to is the back to school shopping.  My family is always on a tight budget and I'm not a huge fan of running around from store to store with an 8 year old, 6 year old, and YIKES a 1 year old.  My solution is layaway. 
I know to many people layaway has a stigma attached to it but over this past year I have begun to appreciate it.  Here where I live you can do layaway at both KMart and Toys R Us, both stores that carry clothing.  Yesterday I started my first layaway order.  Both of my girls need shoes and sports gear for start of the new school year, so I started with those first.  The thing I love most is the ease of  shopping online and placing my whole lay away order on the computer, I then pick the store I want to pick up from, and even make my payments online. 
The store actually gives me a full 8 weeks to pay off my layaway, but because my husband is paid on a weekly basis I actually pay each week so that I'm able to have the order paid off in 4 weeks, leaving me time to place another lay away before school starts if needed.  I love this because we can afford to pay $10-$15 week to pay for our payments, but it is much harder to pay $100 out of a week's check at once.
Benefits of Lay Away:
- shop for your order online
-make payments online
-no interest on the order (there is a one time fee of $5 associated with it though)
-receive the sale prices at time of lay away
-easier to make little bite size payments rather that one huge out of pocket expense
-forces you to plan ahead, planning ahead = savings and no impulse buying
-lots of selection, but no running from store to store.

I plan on using lay away starting in September to get ready for Christmas.  I look forward to having most of my Christmas shopping complete with no debt accrued by December.  Happy Lay Awaying!