“If there is one budget line you can bring down and keep down consistently: groceries. If you could reduce your grocery spending $100, $200, even $300/month, what would you do with the money? Pay off debt? Put it in savings? Take a vacation? Come learn the basics of couponing and smart shopping, and you'll be amazed at how much extra money you have in your pocket at the end of the month!” says Tabitha Hanner, our couponing speaker. This Saturday, Feb. 3, we will be hosting our second ēCO Savings Race University on meal planning and couponing. If this is a topic you need more information on, come by for a free class! (Click here to register and for more details.) Now, before the mind goes to the crazy couponing lady that spends eight hours on a Saturday printing coupons and planning how to buy 2,987 bars of soap, remember that we live in the digital age now; saving on groceries has never been easier and more efficient. In this post, we are going to dive into the world of meal planning and couponing, and why taking the time to plan out groceries is much easier than you can imagine. Here are 4 tips on how to plan for the next grocery trip: 1.Find recipes. There are so many resources to find recipes that work for yourself and your family. There are even subscriptions that will make it easier. While I prefer to pick and choose my own recipes, my favorite services are the ones that offer planned out recipes- the cost is lower and they do all of the work for you. 2.Download apps. Just Google “best coupon apps”; the amount of apps out there are incredible. Some will involve taking a picture of receipt; others will ask for information on different brands. If you want to know the recommended apps, come to our class on Saturday! 3.Make a list. If you don’t have a list with you, how many times have you picked up the birthday cake Oreos and gingerbread ice cream instead of what you really need? Keeping the eyes narrowed on a list helps from picking up the items strategically placed in the aisles! I like to organize my list by aisles or store location which helps me stick to my list. 4.Choose the store(s). Are you looking for a grocery store that has low prices already or one where you can make a great value from coupons and/or buying in bulk? At our class, we will discuss the grocery stores that we recommend. Want to hear more? Great! Come join us on Saturday morning with a class full of great information from two speakers. We will have a door prize, snacks, and free information for all! Make sure to come caffeinated and alert because you don’t want to miss anything that our speakers will be sharing in this class. See you there!
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According to 2017 research by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), only 40% of adults have a budget, and 80% of adults agree they could benefit from advice and answers to everyday financial questions. Who needs financial education? Is it only important for the poor? Or maybe just for the wealthy? It’s so easy to think that financial literacy is important for this group or that group, but in reality—it’s important for EVERYONE. And in our society, the knowledge gap can be seen in young and old, poor and rich, and male and female. Here are four reasons why financial education is important for everyone, regardless of their background:
Now that you know financial literacy is important for everyone, are you ready to improve your financial knowledge? We have a great solution for you! Over the next few months, we will be offering financial education seminars to provide relevant and practical information to our community. Click here to learn more about all of the classes and register. Sources: National Foundation for Credit Counseling, 2017 Infographics, https://nfcc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2017-FLS-Infographic.pdf Associated Press, Poll: Two-thirds of US would struggle to cover $1,000 crisis, http://www.apnorc.org/news-media/Pages/News+Media/Poll-Two-thirds-of-US-would-struggle-to-cover-$1,000-crisis.aspx Written by: Melissa Stewart
Melissa Stewart is a wife, pup-mom, and the Marketing Director at ēCO Credit Union. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, reading, and hunting for Rae Dunn. Financial Literacy for adults has been talked about for years, but what about teens and children? Wouldn’t they benefit from learning how to effectively manage money? I believe the answer to that is a resounding YES! As a Business Math teacher, I feel there are several prominent reasons that financial literacy education is important for teens and children. 1. Buy Now – Pay Later Culture: Years ago, credit was a last resort and a thing of shame, but not today. Credit is almost seen as a rite of passage that is given to teens without teaching them how to maintain good credit. 2. Many Adults in Debt: Contrary to what we wish, children do not do as we tell them, but do as we do. If the adults in their lives are not good money managers, they will likely follow the same path. Someone needs to show them how to manage their money for their benefit. 3. Schools Don’t Teach It: Over the past twenty-five years, many public-school systems have done away with their financial literacy classes to make room for other educational opportunities that do not focus on finances. The deficit has recently been recognized and these classes are being reintroduced. 4. They Will Grow Up: More quickly than we parents would like to think about, our children will grow up and have to make financial decisions of their own. It would be such a disservice to send them on their way without equipping them to be financially successful. When you combine a Credit Hungry culture, parents who are themselves in financial distress, and a lack of educational classes to teach students how to overcome this dilemma, the situation can begin to look grim. However, it does not have to be. Here are a few things you can do now to help prepare your children and teens to be good money managers: 1. Be Intentional in Teaching Them: Even very small children are able to grasp financial concepts, such as, deciding on a small box of cereal or a large box that costs the same. As children mature, include them in other financial decisions of the household such as making the decision to go to the movie theater as opposed to renting a movie and staying in to save money for vacation. 2. Make Them Earn It: Instant gratification is much more appealing than saving and waiting; however, earning something changes its value. Sometimes waiting seems a punishment, when in reality you are helping your child learn a life lesson. If your children are like mine, they are used to getting stuff, and I will find it is not taken care of. When they have worked to earn something, it usually has a special place in their room and is not mistreated. They take pride in knowing they earned it. 3. Teach Them the Value of Saving: This goes hand in hand with the point above. Explain to your child how you save and how they can also save. Many financial institutions have youth programs and some even offer monetary rewards for good grades. (We know a great one that happens to be an eCO CU Foundation sponsor (embed link: https://www.ecocu.org/products/youth-accounts/) Help your child set a goal or find a specific toy they would like to save for. Children are very visual, so setting up a chart or a money jar is helpful. 4. Giving: I know it sounds like a contradiction, but teaching your child about giving to those in need or a specific cause will help your child see a new side to money management…helping others.Technology offers many wonderful resources for working with your teens and children. Here are a few that I rely on:
*The ēCO Credit Union Foundation does not claim to endorse any of these brands or people. Written by: Monica YoungbloodMonica Youngblood is a high school teacher at Cornerstone Christian School in Columbiana, AL. She was a 2017 ēCO Credit Union Foundation grant winner and excels in teaching each student that comes through her classroom about personal finance. We’re almost two weeks into 2018, and I bet at least a few people reading this will have already given up on their New Year’s resolution. Why is it that every January every parking space at the gym is taken but by February it’s back to the usual crowd? Why is that that we get burned out or misguided in the process of aggressively attacking our goals? I have some ideas… 1.Quit planning to fail. I am a firm believer in the overused quote that says, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Go ahead and get that eye roll out of the way; then, think about the last time you gave up on a goal. Why did you give up? Did friends invite you out to eat on a diet, and you just couldn’t eat a salad in a pizza place? (But really, that’s torture.) Did you have an unexpected medical bill come up, and it threw the account completely off course? In those situations, the outcome could have been a lot a different if planning had happened beforehand. Research some apps that would help you plan your goals and track your progress. Or, just get out that good ole pen and notebook. 2.Never stop getting back up. Successful people do not give up when they are knocked down; they just keep getting back up (think: Rocky-style)! We have to accept that life WILL happen when we are trying to accomplish big goals, and we have to roll with the punches. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard, ran a failing business, and then became the biggest self-made millionaire years later. Thomas Edison tried 1,000 failed attempts at inventing the lightbulb; I’d say waiting until that 1,001 was a good idea. And, my personal favorite, Walt Disney was fired from a Missouri newspaper for “not being creative enough.” The moral to this story is to not let ONE bad decision lead to a year of bad decisions. That doesn’t make sense! Instead, accept when you fail at your plan, and then, look at the next day as a fresh start. I promise you that the most successful person you know has fallen at minimum once a month; it’s what they do the next day that defines who they are! At the ēCO Credit Union Foundation, we want 2018 to be the year for financial success! Not only are we offering free financial seminars from January to April, but we are also offering a goal tracker to start planning not to fail. Just click the downloadable PDF below, and start planning away! “When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.” -Walt Disney
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