Remember layaways?

If you are a baby boomer, a layaway plan is probably how you got your first leather jacket, 13-inch Technicolor TV, or major appliance when you were slaving away for just a few bucks an hour.

The plans were also popular during the Great Depression and have grown in popularity during the Great Recession.

With the 2009 holidays looming and credit being squeezed like the U.S. dollar on the world market, Toys "R" Us is appealing to today's growing cash only society with a new layaway plan to help keep its cash registers ringing.

A layaway plan is an interest-free financing agreement that allows consumers to purchase goods through installment payments. While there's no interest charge, service fees and cancellation penalties can apply, but they are typically far, far less costly than potential credit card buys that are allowed to fester with accrued interest.

Launched this week, the Toys "R" Us "Big Gifts" in-store only layaway plan will let you stretch out payments with only a service charge (and local sales taxes) for a host of items the retail chain offers.

To put a product on layaway you must deposit 20 percent of the item's price, pay the item's full tax amount and a $10 service charge. You decide how much you make for each payment and when you make the payment, but you must complete payments by Dec. 6, if you want your item available for pickup before Dec. 25.

Cancel or become unable to complete payment in time and that will cost you.

"The cancellation fee is $5. In the event of any cancellation, a full refund less the cancellation fee and service fee will be refunded to the customer in person at the store where the customer placed his/her original layaway order. Taxes paid are refunded," said Katie Reczek a Toys "R" Us spokeswoman.
The program is not currently available in Maryland and Ohio and Rhode Island have different policies for canceled orders. Check your store for full details.

Toys "R" Us' layaway plan applies only to certain "big gifts" , including battery-powered vehicles, dollhouses, outdoor playsets, basketball systems, keyboards and other musical instruments, televisions, indoor table games, car seats, high chairs, strollers, travel systems and more.

Also look to Sears and Kmart for layaway plans.

Online, eLayaway.com, with 700 affiliate merchants, is becoming the Amazon.com of the online layaway shopping world.