TIP: Save on cost of cleaning products

I've tried natural cleaning methods like using vinegar and baking soda. These are really inexpensive, ordinary household items that work pretty well. (However I must admit I miss the pretty scents that commercial cleaners offer. I haven't tried adding lemon oil to the mix, that would help.)

They work really well. In fact I recently unclogged a drain with boiling water, vinegar and baking soda and a little elbow grease with a plunger. I saved myself the cost of Draino and saved the environment the cost too. And it worked great!

The Daily Green offers a bunch of unusual uses for vinegar, ketchup and vodka.

TIP: Cut water use by 50-70%

The Daily Green suggests you can save on water with a low-flow showerhead and can reduce your water consumption by 50 to 70%. According to the article, the showerheads are easy to install and only cost around $8. The article also says that you won't give up much on water pressure. At $8 it sounds like an idea that's worth giving a try!

TIP: Tips for family fun under $10

This article posted in the Chicago Tribune today offers some great tips for family fun this summer for under $10: http://tr.im/jwzG What ideas would you add?

TIP: Got teens? Save money on prom.

Got teenagers? Save money this prom season without putting a damper on your kids' fun. Prom can be pricey with the dresses, tuxedos, pictures, flowers, limos, hair/nails and dinner . On average, dinner can cost anywhere from $25-30 per person and that’s not even including tip and tax. The last couple of years, instead of our teenagers going out to dinner, we decided to host the dinner at home. Each family has taken a turn preparing and serving dinner to the teenagers. This year, my husband and I were able to serve a nice filet dinner for about $8.00 per person. This is a savings of about $20 per person! We set the dining room table just like a restaurant and the moms and dads served them. This is also a great opportunity for parents to get together and have some food and fun too!

TIP: Free Movies

This week I borrowed "Gone With the Wind" from the Saint Charles Public Library. My 13-year-old daughter hadn't seen it. The only reason she knew of it was the Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World. She is now on a quest to see all the movies in the Great Movie Ride, but the classics are hard to find at Blockbuster; they tend to carry more current stuff.

But, I found "Gone With the Wind" at the library - so I borrowed it for FREE (!) and I got to keep it for a week. I just renewed it for another week. (It's 3 hours long! So it's taking us a couple days to get through it.) It's a great movie - I forgot how rich the characters are.

So check out the library - it's a great way to save money on books, music and movies.

Medical insurance for my dog - is it worth the money?

Poor sick puppy. My dog ate one of those giant Hershey's kisses this week in a little post-Easter binge. He's only 17 pounds and I didn't discover his little indiscretion until it was too late to induce it out of him. So this afternoon I spent half a day in the vet's office and $391 later for x-rays and blood work, he seems to be feeling better. Fortunately, he didn't eat a toxic amount and didn't get any foil lodged in his belly. I hope he learned his lesson, but I know I learned mine. From now his vice stays up high, safely in the cabinet.

Meanwhile, it makes me think about medical insurance for dogs. Looking at a quick quote online, it appears that a mid-range insurance policy would run around $14 ($168 per year) for my 2 year old Bichon. I'd have to look into how comprehensive the coverage is; if it doesn't cover the ailment he gets then I've wasted my money.

As a relatively new dog owner (this little chocoholic is my first pet!) I'm wondering if medical insurance is worth is. Anyone willing to share their experience?

Grand ReOpening Day at Alcatel-Lucent branch

Today we're celebrating the Grand Re-Opening of our branch in the Indian Hill building at Lucent. We made some changes to the interior, so we thought it was a good excuse to serve punch and cookies to our friends at Alcatel-Lucent! After all, our relationship with Alcatel-Lucent goes way back to our founding days at Western Electric's Hawthorne Works Plant in Cicero. The Hawthorne Works plant manufactured telephones and telephone wires and a group of Western Electric employees started the credit union in 1935 by pooling their money to save with each other and make small loans to each other during the Great Depression.


To make a long story short...years later after the plant closed, a portion of the business was sold to another phone company and it moved out to Naperville. Hawthorne Credit Union moved with it.

Can you save by refinancing now?

Do you know your mortgage rate? Rates have been at record lows lately, so chances are you could save money on your monthly payments by refinancing your mortgage. Check out our calculator that can help you decide. Apply online and save about $300 on closing costs. Questions? Contact Senior Loan Officer Christine Roehrig at croehrig@ehawthorne.org or at 630-983-2335.

TIP: Save $63 per year with BillPayer

TIP: Switch from paper checks to BillPayer and save about $63 per year. Let's say you pay 10 bills each month, you'll be paying $4.40 per month when the price of first class postage goes up May 11. That means you could save $52.80 per year if you use free online BillPayer. (I can't imagine why you wouldn't use BillPayer, I can't imagine life before BillPayer. It takes me a fraction of the time to pay bills with BillPayer than it did in the days of writing checks.)

Plus if you figure in the cost of checks and you save more. If a box of 150 checks costs $10, then it costs about 6 cents per check. You'll go through about 1 box of checks each year just paying bills. Add $10 savings to your $52.80. (Just use your Visa Check Card and forget checks altogether!)

You're also saving paper, which is good for the environment. Add electronic statements and eBill to your bill paying routine and you're saving even more paper. The Daily Green suggests BillPay as a great way to save money, energy and paper.

All you need to sign up for BillPayer is a Hawthorne Checking Account and online banking. Then, just pay at least one bill per month and BillPayer is free.

Raising Your Credit Score: A follow up

As a follow up to yesterday's post about improving your credit score. The comment below is from Gary Loechle, Vice President of Commercial Services for Hawthorne. Gary will soon be retiring from Hawthorne after a successful career in banking that included many years as Vice President of Lending at Hawthorne and other financial institutions in our area. Gary had this to say:

"Sandy, Interested in another point of view?

Your two tips are correct. Prompt payments and low balances.

However, in this time of uncertainty, I would have to think long and hard before advising friends to drain savings to pay off a credit card.
Traditionally, the credit score is adversely affected when the balances owing on credit cards are higher than 80% of the credit limit.

While I would always recommend keeping a tight reign on the use of plastic, I would suggest that maintaining, and if possible, building a savings balance is probably more critical today as long as the credit card balances are less than 80% of the credit limits and within our ability to make the payments while saving.

The problems today that would affect my thinking include:

Credit card companies and some home equity lenders have been reviewing accounts and reducing credit limits. Therefore, I would prefer to rely on my savings rather than find the credit, which I thought would be there for emergencies, had evaporated.

Another concern would center on the possibility that a person could lose his/her job. If so, the credit would quickly dry up anyway.

So, the more urgent needs to maintain a good credit score during these times of economic uncertainty would include:

Always make scheduled payments promptly;

Keep credit and charge card usage in check. Use them for emergencies only. Definitely, keep balances below 80% of the credit limits.

Make sure the person considers himself a creditor that also must be paid something each payday, in the form of a savings deposit.

The equivalent of three months of expenses in savings is a very worthy goal. But, for most of us, it will take time to build up the savings to that amount. But, if we don’t start on it today, we’ll never achieve it.

Just a thought from Uncle Gare."

Thanks Gary!

TIP: Ways to raise your credit score

TIP: Two ways to make the biggest impact on your credit score are 1) make your payments on time and 2) keep your balances low.

I recently paid down a balance on one of my credit cards with some savings. It was a tough choice because I know I'm supposed to keep 3 months of expenses in savings (gee, if it only it had been that much), but it seemed useless to have money in savings earning so little when I'm paying so much for credit cards. Anyway, I'll be curious to see how it impacts my credit score. It also reduced my minimum payment, so now I'll continue to make the higher payment and more of my money will go toward paying off the principal balance, lowering my finance charges. (That's called Snowballing, by the way. I should blog about that debt reduction strategy one of these days...)

For more ways to improve your credit score, see this article on our website. It's part of our Balance Financial Fitness program.

What to shred, what to keep

Shred Day is coming up again this Saturday, April 4 from 10 am to noon at our Naperville branch. Shred Day is a convenient way to shred documents with personal information and protect yourself from identity theft. We sometimes get questions about what to shred and what to keep. Below is a chart to help you out: