The holiday season is upon us. The stockings are being hung, the trees are getting trimmed, and my wallet is shrinking by the second with all the shopping I’ve been doing! I already blew through all the cash I had in my wallet, and started using my E&A debit card. I couldn’t pass up any deal. I may have also bought a couple of things for myself, but who could blame me!? There are all these holiday sales going on, I just got caught up in the excitement of getting a great deal! I’m saving money, right? Um…….. Aren’t I?

Ok, so that new watch may have been 60% off, but it still cost me an extra $100 bucks I wasn’t planning on spending. And I was only planning on buying my brother 1 new video game, but I had to get at least 2 to get the 3th one free! And I wasn’t really planning on getting anything for my dog, Banksy, but it seemed like such a good deal.

I set out with a budget of $200 to do all of my holiday shopping, and I ended up spending $380.00…. Oops. I went through and tracked what and how much money I ended up spending so I could see exactly where I went wrong.

• Mom’s gift – Planned: $75    Boots     $50 (within budget, yes!)
• Dad’s gift - Planned: $75     Wrench set     $65 ($15 over, but the bigger set was on sale!)
• Brother’s gift – Planned: $50    Playstation Games – 2 (plus free bonus game)     $120 ($60 over budget)
• Banksy (my dog) – Planned: $0   Super Fluffy Deluxe Dog Bed (on sale)    $45 ($45 over budget)
• Myself – Planned: $0    Designer Watch    $100 ($100 over budget)

I ended up going $180 over budget! So much for all those “Great” deals I was getting.

So it’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog and boy do I have a good reason! I just got a new puppy! His name is Banksy (like the street artist!) and he gets into everything and eats EVERYTHING IN SIGHT! He has already destroyed my favorite pair of tennis shoes, ate my brand new Detroit Tigers hat (right before the first game of the World Series, no less) and half a pillow! I don’t know where he puts it all. He’s a walking garbage disposal!

I also made the unfortunate mistake of leaving some cash just sitting on the coffee table. Next thing I notice, there’s Banksy, chewing on the remains of a $20! That was supposed to be my gas money for the week! I really need to learn to make sure I put my money in my Bonus Bills account until I need it. I guess this is one of those unforeseeable accidents that everyone tells me I should be prepared for.

Next time I am going to make sure I do a few things differently to avoid this. First off, I am NEVER going to just leave money lying around with hungry hound lurking around! Second, I think it might be a good idea to finally start my “Rainy Day” fund to replace everything Banksy is destroying! And lastly, obedience school!!!

After the dance my group of friends all wanted to go out to bowling. I checked my E&A Credit Union checking account on my phone and saw that my funds where getting low. I transferred the money from my saving account over to my checking account to cover the cost of the game.

I had a great time bowling with Cindy so much that we decided to bowl two more games with our group of friends. I did not think about checking my bank account to see how much money I had to spend I was just caught up in the moment.

Looking back I remember waking up and thinking to myself “ Bill you did a great job staying on budget” then I went to my computer just to confirm my thoughts about how well of I job I did. Once I saw my account in the red, I felt my heart thump and I began to sweat as if I just ran four miles.

To this day I have still not figured out how I could have over drawn my checking account.

Does anyone know how this happened? Does anyone have any idea on how I can stop this from happening in the future?

Did you know that today’s young people earn more than $200 billion a year and spend four times what they save? These young people are our future leaders and E&A Credit Union wants to help them better their future. This is one reason E&A Credit Union created the Bonus Bills savings account.

The Bonus Bills savings account has all ready seen a huge success in getting teens to save more money. Teens are accepting the challenge to save money for entries to win prizes. Every $25 of net savings of the monthly balance, gives teens one entry for monthly prizes and a grand prize of a new laptop.

To encourage the savings, E&A Credit Union is running a promotion called “Save More, Win More!” where every $25 of net savings of the monthly balance, gives teens two entries for prizes. To find out more about this promotion or the Bonus Bills program visit www.eacu.org/bonusbills.

So I have been thinking about buying a new Mustang! I currently drive a 2000 Chevy Impala. I love my car it runs fine and gets good gas mileage. The problem is my friends won’t ride in it with me because it’s missing a front bumper, right fender, right headlight and needs a new muffler.

So I know my car needs fixed but why fix it? I mean, driving in a new Mustang would take my image to a whole new level right? I don’t know what to do, I want a new Mustang but I just don’t know if I need one.

Should I get a new Mustang or just fix the car I have?

Bill Banks

I have been working at E&A about three months now. I love my job and love the fact that my bank account is starting to grow! The best part about saving money as a young person at E&A is the Bonus Bills savings account.

The Bonus Bills account is so sweet! It’s the only account at E&A where the more you save the more chances you have to win a laptop and monthly prizes! Just ask any of the winners below!

See you next time,

Bill Banks

So I started my new job the other day as the Youth Marketing Coordinator Assistant. I am loving it and loving the new money even more! I think the only reason why I got the job was because my big brother gave me some advice to help me out during the interview.

Below are the things by big brother told me to do.  I just felt like I should share them with you.

1.)    Do your homework! -You should research the company that you would like to work for. When researching be looking to see if their company culture fits your personality. Find out about the company’s history, what they sell and think of ways you can help improve the company.

2.)    Know yourself! – The company that you want to work for needs to know what you can bring to the table. For example I am a hard worker, good at math and I love talking to people.

3.)    Think/research questions they might ask you! – This was a big help to me. I simply did a Google search of interview question and practice answering some of the questions I thought they where going to ask me. Questions like: what can you tell me about yourself and why are you interested in the posted position?

4.)    Make a good first impression! – Always make sure you dress for the job. My brother told me that if you want a banker’s job you should wear a suit like a banker would during the interview. If you are not sure on the dress code ask the human resources representative before the interview.

5.)    Send a thank you card – When leaving the interview it is important to make eye contact and thank the human resource representative for their time while shaking their hand. As soon as you get home from the interview send a simple thank you card to the company.

I hope this helps you guys like it helped me! Let me know if you have any questions on this topic!

Bill  Banks

“I personally feel this year’s Youth Advisory Board members worked hard in accomplishing their goals in giving the young adult members at E&A Credit Union a voice” said Bill Banks.

Mark Thompson (Youth Marketing Coordinator) presenting check to Jacob Orr (YAB Chairman)

How cool is that?

Here they are pictured with Jan Rose, President & CEO of E&A Credit Union:

Joshua Kenny

Kevin Reilly

Anyways, after the game I wanted some food. I checked my account to see if I had enough money and it said that I still had $50 in my account. I thought to myself, that’s weird, but whatever. Later that day I went to get some Chinese with a few buddies and it ended up costing me $11 including tip. Chinese food is awesome; sometimes I wonder if it is really what food tastes like in China? Maybe one day I will go there and then I will be able to tell the difference.

Sidetracked! Sorry.

So on Monday morning I got an alert from my credit union telling me that my account was overdrawn. THAT WAS NOT POSSIBLE, I CHECKED! What is the deal?

-Bill Banks

Here’s the deal Bill. When you purchase gas with a debit card, it is only originally charged one dollar. It takes a couple of days for the entire transaction to be processed. When you spent $11 eating delicious Chinese food, that caused you to overdraft your account, hence the overdraft charges. Just because it doesn’t show up online immediately (the next day), doesn’t mean the purchase never really happened. So remember, track every purchase and don’t spend more than you have!

-Your brother, Smart Alec