Buds 180 days to pay

[USAF_Vet]

The way I look at it is this:

I get paid weekly. My budget is set up weekly. Every dollar from a base 40 hours a week is budgeted, even if it NOT budgeted to a bill or recurring expense. Budgeting money weekly to an emergency fund is still a budgeted expense. Budgeting money weekly to a discretionary fund is still a budgeted expense. I tend to work a lot of overtime. Guess what? The extra income is budgeted to savings and discretionary funds. I don't think some people understand the definition of a budget. The way I see it, if you don't budget every last dollar to something, its money easily wasted or lost. It doesn't mean your income: expense ratio is close to 1:1.

100% of my wife's income is dedicated to savings and discretionary funds.

So yes, I have a discretionary fund that has enough money in it to buy a high end 1911 or AR-15, or pretty much anything else I want to buy. But I also have priorities for that money, like the new tires for the Cadillac I put on today. Or a new Cadillac entirely. Or a family vacation. Or helping out a family member in need. Or Christmas presents for the family. Or sitting untouched in an account slowing gaining interest until we decide we want to spend it on something. Even then, the items we want to buy are prioritized, because we are not willing to skip the family vacation because I decided to blow the discretionary funds on a new gun. I add another line item to the discretionary savings list, based on priorities, and check it against the budget to see if its a higher expense than higher priorities. If it is, I don't get it, or a lower priority gets dropped off the list to accommodate for it. I get it, my financial budgeting system is probably a lot different than most. But it works, even if I have to avoid instant gratification.

A strict budget does not mean I'm broke, or can't afford to drop a lump sum of money toward an unnecessary expenditure. A strict budget, however, allows me to purchase those unnecessary expenditures while still saving for emergencies and discretionary purchases. If $50 a week can be allotted to discretionary funds, and of that is allotted from the discretionary fun to the 'gun on layaway' fund, I'm still setting aside $20 for discretionary savings.

But I think I get it. A lot of people don't have the fiscal responsibility I have, and still want more stuff despite their income: expense being close to that 1:1 ratio. For those people, layaway, rent to own, credit/ financing is a poor choice on top of a series of poor choices. I'm not one of those people.

 

[USAF_Vet]

Why not just save the money within the 6 months and then buy the gun? You will get your gun at the same time it is paid for either way. This way there is no risk of losing anything.
I'm a firm believer that if I can't put away the money to buy a gun then I can't afford it. If you can't save the money then you can't afford it.

Not necessarily, and I've found this to be 100% wrong in most cases. For brand new items still being manufactured, it might be able to work that way. But for rare, unique items, used guns, or great deals in limited quantities, it's usually a snooze you lose sort of deal.

 

[Elkins45]

There are certain guns that show up only rarely, and when they do they stay on the shelf for a very short time. If it's a gun you want and if you don't have the cash on hand then a layaway plan may be the only way you can acquire it...assuming you have the discretionary income to pay it off when the bill comes due.

For something that will always be on the rack like a Mossberg 500 or 10/22 there's no reason not to just save up and go buy it when you have the money. The layaway plan, or any sort of credit plan only makes sense to me for buying things you know won't be there when you come back.

 

[Reloadron]

There are certain guns that show up only rarely, and when they do they stay on the shelf for a very short time. If it's a gun you want and if you don't have the cash on hand then a layaway plan may be the only way you can acquire it...assuming you have the discretionary income to pay it off when the bill comes due.

For something that will always be on the rack like a Mossberg 500 or 10/22 there's no reason not to just save up and go buy it when you have the money. The layaway plan, or any sort of credit plan only makes sense to me for buying things you know won't be there when you come back.

We just need to remember there is a small caveat to all of this with Bud's. I agree this can be a good thing for a sought after gun. The caveat is where they do specify:

Select Items Only

My guess and only a guess is they will not generally offer layaway on fast moving or hard to get items. When I say fast moving I don't mean guns like those you mentioned but certain hard to find or hard to get guns. Just speculation on my part.

Ron