Sharing settings across methods in namespaced jQuery plugin

Sharing settings across methods in namespaced jQuery plugin

I'm writing a plugin and following the jQuery documentation's recommended practice http://docs.jquery.com/Plugins/Authoring when it comes to namespacing and multiple methods.

My init() takes care of merging default and custom settings using $.extend() however I can not figure out how to make those options available outside of the init() method. Say that call and initialize my plugin using

$("a").myplugin({debug:false}); 
how can I reference the debug property later when I call

$("a").myplugin("someMethod")?  
A rough example is:

  (function( $ ){
        var methods = {
            init: function(customSettings) {
                var options = {
                    debug: true
                }
                return this.each(function () {
                   if (customSettings) {
                       $.extend(options, customSettings);
                   }
                });
            },
            someMethod: function() {
               if(options.debug) { // <-- How can I access options here?
                   // do something
               }
            }
         }
    })( jQuery );

    $.fn.myplugin = function (method) {
                if (methods[method]) {
                    return methods[method].apply(this, Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments, 1));
                }
                else if (typeof method === 'object' || !method) {
                     return methods.init.apply(this, arguments);
                }
                else {
                     $.error('Method ' + method + ' does not exist on jQuery.tbwaga');
                }
            };