When I was a teenager and working in retail, everyone used layaway. Back then credit cards were only for the old and rich, and cash was king. So if you didn’t have enough in your pocket when you wanted to buy that sweet pair of blue jeans or leather bomber jacket, you put it on layaway.

Then cash got bumped down when credit became king, and soon enough retail stores began phasing out layaway plans. Stores like Wal-Mart decided that layaway plans didn’t make any financial sense–for the store, not the customer.

What a difference an economic downturn can make.

This holiday season layaway has come blazing back onto the retail scene. A recent Washington Post story talked about how K-Mart has brought back layaway for this holiday season, mostly because its customers were afraid of ringing up too much credit card debt. Nothing like layaway to keep your budget on track.

K-Mart isn’t the only store getting back on the layaway band wagon. Sears (which owns K-Mart) and TJ Maxx have reintroduced layaway plans as has Pennsylvania department store Boscov’s (which just changed ownership hands after having a rough year with many store closings. So I’m not sure how much confidence I would have in a Boscov’s layaway plan. Will the store even be around by Christmas? That’s anyone’s guess).

So if you decide to try layaway this holiday season (there are still 19 shopping days until Christmas), here what you need to know:

1. Expect to give a down payment.
Just like paying for a mortgage over time, it isn’t unreasonable for the store to ask you for some money down. This shows that you’re serious enough about buying the item that they’re not taking a huge risk by removing said item from the selling floor.

2. Have a written plan for your layaway.
Before you leave the store, make sure you’ve got something in writing from the store that lists the item(s) you’ve put on layaway, how much they cost, how much you’ll pay and the frequency of payments. There should be no surprises or last minute red tape when you make your final layaway payment and come to take your purchase home for good.

3. Find out what happens if you change your mind or miss a payment.
Missing one mortgage payment doesn’t put your home into foreclosure, but with a layaway plan, the store could put your merchandise back out on the floor when you miss a payment. And now you’re out the cash and the item you wanted to buy. At the same time you need to know upfront if you’ve got any sort of grace period, during which you could change your mind about your purchase and receive your money back in full. Again, this is where a written agreement about the layaway plan comes in handy.

4. Don’t let a layaway plan tempt you to over shop.
With layaway a shopper’s option again, you could easily go nuts and start putting thing after thing away on layaway. That’s fine if you’ve got money socked away and will have no problem making the payments. However, if there is any chance that you might default on a payment–and then lose the item–or put yourself in financial straits trying to make your layaway payments, then it’s just not worth it.

5. Check out alternative layaway plans.
There’s a company called eLayaway that let’s you use a traditional layaway plan with stores that don’t traditionally offer it–that is e-tailers. eLayaway works with more than 1,000 online stores so people who shop online and want the option of layaway can do both. Instead of visiting a store on a regular basis to make your payments, eLayaway sets up automatic deductions from your bank account. This ensures that you never miss a payment.

What do you think about the resurgence of layaway plans?