Do You Use Layaway for Kids' Christmas?

[Happyinwonerland]

The title says it all. Does anyone use layaway for their kids' Christmas? I have never done this, I usually buy stuff I think she would like when it is on sale (typically online). Now that she's 4 she is very aware of what I purchase and she knows when packages arrive (she likes to watch for the UPS truck -we order online often). I was thinking of putting some things on layaway and then picking them up when she isn't with me. Anyone have experience with this? Pros/cons?

I use to work layaway at Walmart years ago when I was a teenage college student and it seemed like a lot of what we got was kids' Christmas.

 

[Hikergirl]

I don't use it but I think its a great option for people who need a place to "hide" the gifts but don't have any place in their home to do it. Or who have a very curious kids too LOL.

 

[MomToOne]

I never did layaway - I always just managed it other ways.

When she was little, I got away with just telling DD that packages were household items, a gift for her grandparents/aunts/uncles/cousins/etc or something I needed for work. I never opened packages in front of her so she would just sort of shrug it off. I have a separate "junk" room that she's not allowed into where I would just throw all the packages into as soon as they came, and I would then wait to open them until after she went to sleep. I admit it helped that I would buy things way ahead of Christmas so she didn't necessarily have that on her mind when the packages came. This approach worked well for years and years.

But now that DD is 16 and more aware of my advance shopping habits, if there is a package I really want to hide from her I just have it rerouted to the FedEx or UPS stores down the street and pick them up there. If you download the FedEx and UPS apps, you can do that for free from them. But honestly, I don't really do that too often - usually only if I think she might be able to tell what's in the package from the packaging. Generally, I just tell her it's none of her business what are in the packages and still throw EVERYTHING (for her or not) into the junk room until I can open them privately. I shop online a lot - so much so that our FedEx guy recognized us at the store a few weeks ago and stopped to say hi LOL - so she knows all of the packages can't be for her but she knows some of them probably are. But on any specific package she has no idea and she just lets it go...

(USPS also has an app but I don't know if they allow you to hold a package for pickup at the post office - I've never tried.)

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I ship everything to my job. Oddly enough my kids don't snoop and my 16 year old likes being surprised.

 

[QueenIsabella]

I never used layaway, but using it to "hide" gifts is a great idea. I also never knew you could have stuff shipped (or held) at UPS. Good to know, even though my kids are past the Santa stuff. OTOH, they're not above snooping, so I wrap as I go--and keep a list, because I'm terrible at remembering what I got for whom.

Another possibility is to have stuff shipped to a neighbor or relative. You could even trade doing this--"Oh, look the widget that my friend Betty ordered arrived! I'll bring her the package later."

 

[dreiwhit]

We don't use layaway. We have a seperate savings account at our bank for just vacation and Christmas, and a little out of every pay check goes into that account automatically.

 

[dhardawa]

I don't use it. I just wrap the gifts as I buy them and put them in a pile.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

We don't use layaway. We have a seperate savings account at our bank for just vacation and Christmas, and a little out of every pay check goes into that account automatically.

I was thinking of using if more s a way to hide the gifts, not a budgeting tool. But I suppose it could work as a budgeting tool too!

 

[sparrish88]

I used it last year and the year before. This year, I won't be using it. I started early when layaway would first I open but then I would find myself changing the stuff on layaway so this year I won't be.

 

[scrapquitler]

I've heard a lot of stories about layaway items being lost or misplaced in the store. Imagine picking that sought after toy in October, putting it on layaway then going to pick it up and the store not being able to find it??? No thanks.

When our kids were little, we had packages shipped to my Mom's house. When my brother's and I were younger, our parents kept our packages in the closet at their business where we would never see them.

A few years ago, one of our local self storage places ran a special on many of their small empty units for November/December where you could rent it for a very low price (I think it was $25 or $50) as long as you got the stuff out by Christmas Eve. It was great one year when we bought a couple of big items that we wanted to hide.

 

[bigbabyblues]

My kids are older now, but if we shop early, I have stuff shipped to my MIL's house and pick it up when I have time or she brings it when she comes here. I do the same thing with DH's stuff, only she orders it and I pay her so it doesn't show up on the bank account. DH gets a bonus around the middle of December, and we usually shop with that after it gets here.