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A CHRISTMAS STORY
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Christmas! Christmas! Christmas! Almost everyone appreciates the holiday seasons. Fresh baked pecan and pumpkin pies, turkeys, hams, Macaroni and cheese, stuffing, candied yams, cranberry sauce, butter cakes, sports, Christmas lights, and best of all, presents, presents, presents! Some might say, “But it’s sooooooo expensive”. For many, this time of year, tends to leave them broke, exhausted and depressed. And though this sad state of affairs continues to occur consistently year after year, it doesn’t have to be that way. With just a little pre-planning, discipline, and a wonderful almost forgotten invention called, “Store Lay-A-Way”, anyone can have an exciting, stress free holiday, full of delicious foods, good friends and lots of laughter. So I hear you asking, just what is “Store Lay-A-Way” and how can it help me? Well before we get into the nitty gritty of “Store Lay-A-Way”, let talk about the traditional way that many spend their holidays. Imagine you want to plan for a particular event that occurs at least once a year, let’s say…..Christmas. You could do it the way that many of the, afore mentioned stressed out folks do it, for instance, wait until the last minute i.e., December. You could take all or most of your first paycheck from that month to pay for hurriedly purchased gifts, you know, the kind that are bought without any real understanding of the person they’re being bought for, the kind that will go home with the receiver, never to be seen again. You could then take all or most of your second check to buy decorations and food; tossing out most of the food the day after the event, because you have bought far more than was needed, and since it wasn’t eaten, you have nowhere to really store it. Now comes the fun part, the overdue notices for your gas, electric, and phone bill, which you didn’t pay, because you needed those monies to meet your holiday obligations. Soon thereafter the automated collection calls begin and on a really good day, you might just get an actual live human collector. Wow! It is so great to have our priorities in order. Of course, you could just take the easy way out and charge everything to one of your many nearly maxed out credit cards. It will only take another eleven months to pay everything back, THEN YOU CAN START THE WHOLE PROCESS ALL OVER AGAIN! WON’T THAT BE FUN? So, if it turns out that after having considered the traditional way, you find that you’d like to try things a little different this year, “Store Lay-A-Way” may just be the thing for you. So What Is Store Lay-A-Way? Store Lay-A-Way is a program offered by many department stores that allows you to shop for all the items that you would like to present as gifts i.e., electronics, clothing, sports equipment, household goods, etc. in advance. After you have collected all your items, you take them to the customer service counter where they are tagged and placed in safe keeping for you. The total cost of all items is calculated for you and you entered into an agreement which allows you to make installment payments every month or twice a month, or every week until the items are paid in full, at which time you can remove all your items and take them home. Because your payments are a fraction of the total cost, you’ll hardly feel the payment, if you feel it at all. How cool is that! Now that I’ve got you inspired, get out there this weekend and start LAYING AWAY! LOL!
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