Tag Archives: summer

Water Your Lawn & Your Wallet Too

Savings

If you’d like to grow your landscape and your finances this season, Peoples Bank & Trust has the perfect tips for you! To jumpstart this warmer weather, we’re excited to share our top tips and tricks to maintaining a healthy lawn and garden without digging too deep into your budget:

Seed your lawn early on. Get the growing season started right, and give your landscape some food to help it grow. By not only seeding your grass, but adding fertilizer as well, you can help ensure that your roots grow strong and healthy to fight off intermittent weather changes and pesky pets.

Automate your watering routine.  Keep your landscape looking green by maintaining a daily watering routine without all the fuss of hoses and watering cans. By setting up an automated system, you can make certain you’re not wasting water, while also saving additional funds from no longer needing to replace malnourished plants.

Utilize alternative landscaping options. Reduce your overall recurring costs by taking advantage of helpful products such as landscape fabric, river rock, and various xeriscaping plants. By using these tools to grow foliage other than grass you can cut down on your time and expenses associated with mowing and upkeep.

Other Outdoor Savings Tips: While the above tips can aid you in keeping a green and healthy landscape, saving money isn’t  about maintenance only. To help continue your savings in other areas of lawn care, we wanted to share some further tricks in how to reduce other outdoor expenditures associated with your growing landscape.

  • Choose colorful perennials over less-timely annuals when planting flowers. While annuals can have prominent blooms that catch your eye, these flora varieties will need to be re-planted every year. Avoid paying for new seedlings each spring by utilizing returning perennials plants instead. These recurring blooms will hibernate underground each winter, and emerge where they were originally planted year after year.
  • Plant prosperous fruit trees for added shade and earning through plant production. By providing an escape from heated sunlight, shade producing trees can help decrease the cost of your home’s monthly cooling bill. If you choose a tree that also produces fruit you can typically accumulate $200 or more worth of produce that you have the potential to sell as well.

Make the most of this planting season, and create a garden that will give you both joy and savings. We can’t wait to see what you and your family create, be sure to post photos of your outdoor creations on our Facebook page. We’d love to see what ideas and hacks you use!

Going Green with Your Home This Summer

Use these tips to help make your summer home improvements work for your wallet and the environment.

Use these tips to help make your summer home improvements work for your wallet and the environment.

 

Summer is a great time to start tackling all those projects on your home improvement list!  These days, many folks are choosing to take the “going green” route when making their home renovations.  While “going green” can be more efficient, be better for the environment, and even pay itself off in the long run, often times the high-efficiency appliances can be more expensive.

So, if you’re wanting to go green with your home improvements this summer, Peoples Bank & Trust has some tips on how you can get started:

Step by Step Improvements.  Make an organized list of all of the home improvements that you want to get done this summer.  Then, label each task in order of importance.  Whether you decide to have your order of importance based on cost or functionality, this will help you prepare a budget and get done what needs to be done.

Consider a Second Opinion. For many folks, going green can be somewhat confusing.  You know you want to be more energy-efficient, but what products are the best options to invest in?  There are many builders or energy focused nonprofits that are willing to inspect your home and give ideas on “green” specific appliances or updates.

Be Patient for that “Payback Period.” Once you have completed your energy efficient renovations, it may take a while (even years!) for you to see the cost savings of your energy efficient appliances or updates.  Don’t worry, some of the best improvements take years to see the best bang for your buck.

Although making these high-efficiency improvements is becoming more popular and pays itself off in the long run, these type of renovations can be a large and expensive task.  Peoples Bank & Trust wants to help you get those improvements done and a home equity loan may be just what you need.

Contact us today to learn more about home equity and how we can help you achieve a “greener” home!

Peoples Bank & Trust Co.

Member FDIC

Equal housing lender

 

Making Extra Summer Cash

Earn some extra summer cash by looking for seasonal jobs.

Earn some extra summer cash by looking for seasonal jobs.

 

The summer is upon us and you or your kids may have found you have extra time on your hands. A great way to spend your extra time this summer is by picking up a second or part-time job. The summer offers a variety of seasonal jobs that are a great way to make some extra summer cash. Here are a few ideas on potential summer jobs:

  1. Turn your spring cleaning into summer cash. Consider teaming up with some neighbors to have a garage sale or think about using online sale forums to sell your lightly used goods and furniture.
  1. Start up your own lawn maintenance services or join up with an existing one.  Working for the city by mowing park lawns is a very popular summertime gig.  You can also start up your own service by working for neighbors, friends, and family and having them spread the word for you.
  2. If you are a college student out for the summer, or are a school teacher, check out becoming a summer tutor.  Being a summer tutor can look great on a resume and is also a great way to stay sharp during summer break!
  3. Many people take vacations in the summertime, so offer to house sit for your neighbor or family friend.  House sitting could include simple tasks such as getting the mail, watering plants, pet sitting, and/or periodically checking on the house.
  4. Check your community and surrounding areas for summer specific jobs like amusement parks, golf courses, ball parks, or lawn and home care department stores.

Since your spending usually increases in the summer, it is a great time to spend your free time making a little extra cash.  Peoples Bank & Trust is here for all your banking needs, including setting up accounts or investing the extra cash you may make this summer. Call or stop by today to see how we can help!

Peoples Bank & Trust Co.

Member FDIC

Equal housing lender