“Betty” is a
client that I have known for a few years and recently have been involved with
her through the Economic Empowerment Program here at FSWP. As long as I’ve known “Betty” she has
struggled to pay bills, make ends meet and have enough money at the end of each
month so that she could ever possibly get ahead of the next. I hadn’t seen her for a while until she
showed up at one of my Financial Wellness classes where we started
talking. This was a person who had not
had a checking account for many years and was fearful of even walking into a
bank. She was paying bills with money
orders and admits she was wasting money with how it was managed. “Betty” saw a class flyer and attended the financial
classes when she could. “Betty” realized
that she may need some other support related to her finances and asked if I
could meet with her to focus on her budget.
We looked at her credit, created a spending plan and I asked her if she
would open a checking account. She
hesitated at first but this is where things started to change for her. With some nagging on my part and some
confidence from her, “Betty” recently opened her own checking account at First
Commonwealth Bank. The best thing about
her new account she told me is that she is paying bills with a debit card and
checks. “Betty” was so excited when I
met with her after she opened her new checking account. She doesn’t have to go to the mini mart to
get money orders because all she does now is put her bill in the mail with a
check inside. She has said more than
once, how “thrilled” she is to be able to go into the bank, not be scared and
know that she has the means to improve how she manages herself
financially. She wants to open a savings
account at some point and has said on numerous occasions that she thought she
would “never be back to this point”. “Betty”
also told me that she had $3.00 in her checking account at the end of the month
and that was something “I can’t remember happening for a long time”. Of
course, we celebrated that. “Betty”
realizes that she has a long road ahead for financial stability but also is
able to identify that this is a first step to improve her life. And as we seek to improve the lives of our
clients and push for recovery and empowerment, Through support of the Economic
Empowerment program, Financial Wellness classes and individual Budget
Counseling, this client is “finally going in the right direction” as she stated
it.
If you are interested in Budget Counseling or Financial Wellness classes in Allegheny or Westmoreland Counties, please call (412) 820-2050 ext 419!
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