Many retailers are anticipating an off-year due to a “bah humbug” economy, yet spending this holiday season is still expected to average $1,100 per household¹.

If this amount was put on a credit card at 18 percent interest—and assuming only minimum payments at 2 percent were made—it would take more than seven years to pay off the balance.

“Considering the current economic climate, there is very little room right now for mistakes. Unfortunately for some, holiday spending will cause their financial security to backslide,” says Ted Beck, president and CEO of the National Endowment for Financial Education® (NEFE®). “Don’t be afraid to say ‘no’ to gifts you truly cannot afford. Remember, the greatest gift you can give your family is financial stability.”

From gifts and parties to decorations and travel, there are numerous financial pressures associated with the holiday season. Consumers feel more pressure when giving in to enticing sales and impulse purchases of last-minute items. “It’s important to maintain perspective,” Beck says. “If you spend money you don’t have to ‘save’ on a sale, you really aren’t saving money at all.” NEFE offers these five tips to manage spending in the final two weeks of the holiday shopping season:

1. Make a budget and commit: List all of the gifts and decorations you plan to buy, the parties you will attend and the travel expenses you anticipate. Do not exceed your preset limits.
2. Make a gift list and check it twice: List all family members, friends and co-workers for whom you plan to make purchases. Be flexible in cutting the list to accommodate your budget if needed.
3. Comparison shop: Consider online shopping to get the best deals, but be sure to figure in shipping costs. Check sale ads regularly and be selective in your shopping. Once you have purchased a gift for someone, cross them off your list. Avoid adding last-minute impulse items just to make your gift seem more meaningful.
4. Make concessions: To maintain your budget, you may have to cut down your list of gift recipients. You also may have to be selective in what parties you will attend. Many people will add substantial costs with other activities, such as wrapping gifts and sending holiday cards. Avoid expensive wrapping and consider sending a letter rather than individual cards.
5. Best planning is to save: Although it’s late this year, remember, holiday spending is a recurring expense. You should establish a savings account that you regularly contribute to throughout the year. Ask your bank about setting up a designated account that money can be transferred to automatically.

Savings will help lessen your dependency on credit when the holidays roll around. But if you do turn to credit cards, be sure to use them responsibly. Designate one card to use when you go shopping and leave the others at home. Be sure to choose one with a low—preferably no—interest rate. Finally, keep track of all expenses and stay within a range that you can commit to paying off when the bill arrives in January. Remember, it does not matter what bargains you find while shopping if you end up paying interest on your purchases.

If money is tight this year and you already have made concessions in your budget, consider gift-giving alternatives. These may include homemade coupons good for child care or helping someone with household chores; giving a photograph of yourself and the recipient—something personal, meaningful, but inexpensive; or having a name drawing where family members choose one person whom they will buy for.

For more money saving and spending tips visit www.smartaboutmoney.org. NEFE is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to helping all Americans acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to take control of their financial destiny. To learn more about NEFE, visit www.nefe.org.

###

1 International Council of Shopping Centers, Goldman Sachs Holiday Survey, November, 2008. 

Mobile banking from UTFCU offers is a safe, convenient way to:
• - Check account balances
• - View transaction summary
• - Transfer funds between your UTFCU accounts
• - Quickly find ATM and branch locations



We’re offering this service for free to any member who is signed up or Home Banking, but you’ll definitely want to check with your service provider to see what rates and charges you will incur from them before you log in.

You can read more about mobile banking on the UTFCU website.

]]> General 2008-12-12T15:50:00-05:00 http://www.utfcu-rocks.com/index.php/comments/holiday_deals_at_lifetakesvisacom/ http://www.utfcu-rocks.com/index.php/comments/holiday_deals_at_lifetakesvisacom/#When:16:32:01Z Here’s a quick money-saving tip for VISA cardholders. Head over to www.lifetakesvisa.com for an extensive list of holiday deals. Once on the site, you’ll be able to browse by category and merchant to find the special offers you’re looking for.

If you don’t have a VISA check or debit card, UTFCU can help. Swing by any UTFCU branch or call 865.971.1971 for more information.



Thanks to Malinda for submitting this tip. Do you have a savings tip you’d like to share? We would love to hear about it. Click here to submit yours now!


]]> Financial Tips 2008-12-11T16:32:01-05:00 http://www.utfcu-rocks.com/index.php/comments/free_energy_efficiency_kit/ http://www.utfcu-rocks.com/index.php/comments/free_energy_efficiency_kit/#When:14:51:00Z Utility bills, especially with the cold weather we’ve been having lately, can wind up costing a lot more you may have anticipated. Fortunately, the folks at the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) offer tips on conserving power and lowering your bills. We’ll be featuring more of their energy-savings tips in future posts, but wanted to share a link you can use to complete an energy audit for your home and get some free stuff in the meantime!

Click here to get started on your home energy audit.

Take the Home Energy Audit before September 30, 2009, and TVA will send you an Energy Efficiency Kit with tools to help you save energy and money.

The kits are free of charge and include the following items:


• - Two compact fluorescent bulbs

• - Outlet and light switch gaskets
• - A filter whistle
• - Two faucet aerators

• - A home thermometer

• - “How to Save” brochure





Do you have a savings tip you’d like to share? We would love to hear about it. Click here to submit yours now!

]]> Financial Tips 2008-12-08T14:51:00-05:00 http://www.utfcu-rocks.com/index.php/comments/bobinmotion_wants_to_help_you_save_money_on_gas/ http://www.utfcu-rocks.com/index.php/comments/bobinmotion_wants_to_help_you_save_money_on_gas/#When:15:11:01Z If you’re a Twitter user (and hopefully you are), then in addition to following UTFCU, you might want to follow bobinmotion. Besides talking about Costa Rican coffee and techy web stuff, Bob has created a system for notifying his followers of the cheapest gas prices in Knoxville several times each day. You’ll get updated pricing on your way to work in the morning, another around lunch time, and a final one on the way home in the afternoon. Make sure to push his updates as SMS messages to your mobile phone so you’ll always know the cheapest places to get gas in town.

Do you have a savings tip you’d like to share. We would love to hear about it. Click here to submit yours now!

]]> Financial Tips 2008-12-04T15:11:01-05:00 http://www.utfcu-rocks.com/index.php/comments/interested_in_mobile_banking/ http://www.utfcu-rocks.com/index.php/comments/interested_in_mobile_banking/#When:13:10:01Z UTFCU members will soon be able to access account information, check balances, view transactions, and transfer funds between accounts on their cell phones using our new mobile banking platform. Although the official launch is still a couple weeks off, we’re looking for a few volunteers to participate in our beta program and help us test the system on a variety of devices. Please leave a comment below (make sure to provide a valid email address in the comment form), DM us on Twitter, or call the credit union if you’re interested in participating and we’ll take care of the rest.

• An account at UTFCU (click here to apply for membership)
• A mobile phone
• A data plan for your phone
• In order to use the downloadable application, you’ll need a device that supports java
• In order to use the mobile website, you’ll need a device that’s web-enabled
]]> 2008-10-27T13:10:01-05:00 http://www.utfcu-rocks.com/index.php/comments/what_makes_the_credit_union_difference/ http://www.utfcu-rocks.com/index.php/comments/what_makes_the_credit_union_difference/#When:18:26:00Z UTFCU is pleased to join thousands of credit unions across the globe in celebrating International Credit Union day on Thursday, October 16. This year’s theme, “It Belongs To Me,” underlines one of the core attributes all credit unions share: ownership by their members. We want to know what you think makes credit unions special.

We’ve created a way for you to share your opinion on what makes the CU difference using one of our favorite tools, Twitter. If you’re already using Twitter, share your response by placing #cu_difference somewhere in a message.

Example response: #cu_difference I love the friendly customer service I always receive at my credit union.

If you’re not a Twitter user and would like to participate, I encourage you to sign up for a free account here and make sure to follow UTFCU to receive updates on what’s happening at the credit union along with information on featured products and promotions.

You can view everyone’s responses on our special CU Difference page or view them in real time using this website.

You’re also welcome to leave your response as a comment below and we’ll add them to the feed as soon as possible.

]]> 2008-10-15T18:26:00-05:00 http://www.utfcu-rocks.com/index.php/comments/what_tv_shows_are_you_watching/ http://www.utfcu-rocks.com/index.php/comments/what_tv_shows_are_you_watching/#When:21:08:00Z The past few days of cooler weather and the first sightings of leaves changing color reminds us that it is now officially Autumn. I’ve always enjoyed this time of year because it marks the beginning of the UT football season, because of the beauty it brings to the mountains of East Tennessee along with the demise of the mosquitoes and yellow jackets that prevent me from enjoying the great outdoors during the summer months, and because it ushers in a whole slew of reasons to relax in front of the television. That’s right, we’re in the heart of season premiere country now and I’m wondering what everyone thinks about the offerings this year.

As a web developer/internet junkie that spends more time at Best Buy than in the gym, I was particularly excited about the premiere of my favorite series from last year, Chuck. While I did enjoy this week’s episode, it just didn’t seem quite as entertaining this time around. It looks like several highly anticipated season premieres didn’t get the numbers they enjoyed last year, including Heroes and Life.

Reviewing the numbers made me wonder- What is everyone watching and how are you watching it? Has DVR, the ability to watch full episodes online, and the addition of more shows to the iTunes music store changed the way you watch television? I’d love to know what you think. Let me know what about your favorite series and your favorite way to get your TV fix by leaving a comment below. I’ve got some free music download cards that I’ll give to the first 5 people who leave a comment. Sorry, I can’t mail them, so you’ll need to swing by the credit union on White Avenue to pick them up.


]]> Digital Life 2008-10-03T21:08:00-05:00 http://www.utfcu-rocks.com/index.php/comments/more_cool_uses_for_text_messages/ http://www.utfcu-rocks.com/index.php/comments/more_cool_uses_for_text_messages/#When:20:34:00Z I love all of the new and interesting ways individuals and companies are using sms (text) messages these days, and judging from the number of people I see texting and walking on Cumberland Avenue, it looks like I’m not alone. In a previous post, I mentioned a few of my favorite mobile productivity tools, several of which made use of text messaging. In this post we’ll talk about two additional services that allow you to use text messages in new, interesting ways.

Tatango

Now that school is in full swing, you probably find yourself juggling homework, your social life, your job, and probably even a number of school-related projects all at the same time. There’s a good chance that you use your mobile telephone to call teammates or friends to schedule things like study sessions and meetings, but what if you could send one text message to update an entire group of people?

Tatango helps make life easier by allowing you to create groups of contacts and easily send messages to all members through your mobile phone or a web interface. As Tatango describes on their website,

“Send one message directly from your computer or mobile phone to all of your group members, keeping them connected anytime, anywhere.”

Using the site is extremely easy. After you’ve activated your account, simply use the control panel to create a contact group. Although you can join several groups with the free plan, you’re only allowed to create and manage one group at a time without opting for the pro account. Once you’ve setup your account and created a group, update members by sending text messages to Tatango’s short code or login and use the web interface.



ReacTee

ReacTee helps you “promote your causes and express yourself with shirts that text back.” The site allows you to create and purchase interactive shirts that you can use to help spread the word about your organization or your interests. Each shirt features a keyword that anyone can text to 41411 for additional information. Within seconds, users receive a reply with a custom message you create just for your shirt. Changing the outgoing message is easily accomplished through a control panel on the company’s site.

Some examples mentioned on the ReacTee website include a New York DJ who uses her shirt to accept requests during parties and a sports fan who updates his response with his favorite team’s schedule.



Drop us a line if you’re using either of these tools or any other service you think we should know about. You can also text UTFCU to 25827 for important credit union news and promotions!


]]> Digital Life 2008-09-24T20:34:00-05:00 http://www.utfcu-rocks.com/index.php/comments/gator_hater_bash/ http://www.utfcu-rocks.com/index.php/comments/gator_hater_bash/#When:17:26:00Z This Saturday’s matchup between the UT Vols and Florida Gators promises to be one we won’t soon forget. UT Federal Credit Union and the Orange Nation want you to join them for a Gator Hater Bash this Saturday to celebrate the rivalry, enjoy a seafood boil, and help the UT baseball team raise money to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Everyone is welcome, and face painting will be available for the young UT fans.  Tickets for the seafood boil are only $5, so be sure to join in on Andy Holt Avenue to celebrate before the UT-Florida game, from 11-2 this Saturday.

Orange Nation will be kicking the party off at 11:00 a.m. at the Orange Nation headquarters located at 1811 Andy Holt Ave

]]> General 2008-09-18T17:26:00-05:00