Three Tips To Save On Holiday Shopping

There’s only 9 days left until the biggest shopping day of the entire year!  Whether you are planning on braving the Black Friday crowds bright and early or sleeping in and wait for the crowds to disburse a little bit, here are three tips to save your wallet this holiday shopping season!

1.  Plan ahead and stick to your mission!  The aisles and displays at stores are meant to draw you in and inspire you to fill that cart fuller.  Avoid impulse buys that you don’t really need by making a solid plan of what you want to accomplish beforehand and stick to it!  Along these lines means making and sticking to a budget, too!  Online budgeting tools, like Honor’s MoneyDesktop, can help you figure out what your budget is and help you stay disciplined in sticking to it!

2.  Price-Match!  More and more stores are willing to match prices, but you’ll never know unless you ask!  Take advantage of that smart phone in your pocket and do a quick search of items you find in the store you are currently in to make sure it’s not cheaper elsewhere.  If it is, show the cashier your smartphone and see if they will match it!  The most they can say is no!

3.  Coupons! Coupons! Coupons!  All that mail that you typically put right in the recycle bin or emails you usually swipe to delete before opening might be worth a second look this time of year!  Paying attention to who is having the sales will help you create your plan and stick to your mission like we mentioned in tip #1!  The dollars that some of those coupons can save you collectively can really add up meaning extra money that stays in your mason jar!

Don’t forget to follow us on twitter @honorcu and let us know what you want to hear about next week using #askhonorcu! 

Source - http://www.bankrate.com/financing/saving-money/jean-chatzky-4-holiday-shopping-secrets/?ic_id=News4

Three Reasons You Should Be Using An Online Personal Finance Tool

Do you use an online personal finance tool?  Personal finance tools are tools that can make managing your money easier.  These convenient applications can make a big difference when it comes to managing the coins in your mason jar even more effectively!  There are many different options that you can use, but Honor’s version is called Money Desktop.  Here are three reasons that you should be taking advantage of one of these tools:    

1. Account Aggregation – We know that a lot of you have more than one financial institution or credit card, and that’s ok!  Keep track of all of your accounts on one website with account aggregation.  Whether it’s tracking your Kohl’s credit card, a retirement account, or a checking/savings account, you can view everything at one time on one screen with personal finance tools like Honor’s Money Desktop.   
2. Debt Payback Breakdowns – Did you know that the average number of credit cards per household is 3.5*? If this is you, did you also know that with an online personal finance tool you can track and look at different options to pay down all of your credit cards, loans, or other debt with just the click of a button?  For example, with Honor’s Money Desktop, an interactive tool with a graph for easy viewing will show you how to pay down debt based on “Fastest Payoff,” “Highest Interest First,” “Lowest Balance First,” or “Highest Balance First.”  And once you select one of those options it even projects when you will be out of debt based on the minimum payment!
3. Set Goals! – With an online personal finance tool, you can integrate your financial goals right in with all of your accounts.  You can set savings goals or debt payoff goals and keep track of your progress all in the same place.  No need to keep an excel spreadsheet that you may or may not remember to update each month, when you have an online personal finance tool to update it for you automatically!

If you want to learn more about Honor’s online personal finance tool, Money Desktop, visit our website!  Don’t forget to follow Honor Credit Union on twitter @honorcu and let us know using #askhonorcu!  

Listen to the Mason Jar Monday episode and hear Scott & Wild Bill's full conversation on Personal Finance Tools below! 

*Source - United States Trade & Development Agency