Advice from Successful Savers

Heidi Hawkins

“Being able to budget [to save] was difficult. There were times when I wanted to go out with friends, or go to a restaurant, or buy something, but I had to sacrifice instead. I had to give up immediate gratification for future gratification.”

Heidi Hawkins cultivated her love of cooking when she was living in Tanzania as a Peace Corps volunteer. “Cooking was a de-stressor for me,” she recalls. “It was also fun to share American sweets with the Tanzanians as a cultural exchange. I had a lot of interest in desserts in particular and I wanted to learn more and learn the French technique.”

So Heidi, who was previously a math teacher, enrolled in CAAB’s IDA program to save money for culinary school, where she specialized in pastries. After serving as an intern at a bakery, Heidi realized she didn’t like the hectic pace of commercial bakeries or having to work for someone else. Eventually she would like to open her own bakery or catering business where she can specialize in creating the kinds of desserts that she loves and knows others would love too. Meanwhile, she is working in the accounting department of the National Cathedral School and practicing her culinary skills on the side. “I bake for family and friends if they’re having parties,” Heidi explains.

Learning accounting will help her better understand the business side of becoming an entrepreneur, Heidi believes. She and her fiancé Charles would like to work overseas, and “depending on where we are,” Heidi says, “I could have my own business out of my home for expats. Eventually I’d like to have my own small shop I’m in control of and in charge of.” Charles, who also has an IDA account that he’s using to pay for graduate school tuition, told Heidi about CAAB’s IDA program.

Heidi worked as a temp while she perfected her baking prowess in school, and saved $100 per pay period, or $200 a month, while she was in the IDA program. She used earnings from her temp jobs, her paid internship at a bakery, and savings from Christmas gifts to apply to her IDA. At the end of six months she had more than the $1,000 that is eligible for matching, so she used the extra money toward loans she had taken out to pay for school.

“Being able to budget [to save] was difficult,” Heidi says. “There were times when I wanted to go out with friends, or go to a restaurant, or buy something, but I had to sacrifice instead. I had to give up immediate gratification for future gratification.” It’s tough, she explains, to be “disciplined about spending, especially if you use a debit card or credit card and you can’t really see the money coming or going.”

Participating in CAAB’s money management class helped Heidi pay for school and plan for the future. “I learned a lot about my credit report. I never really thought about it in the past. CAAB gave us tools to check our credit reports for free and tools to increase our credit scores. They told us about a website that helps you compare different savings accounts to find the best interest rates (www.bankrate.com) which lists different benefits of various kinds of accounts—Roth IRAs, money market accounts, credit cards. They also gave us a few websites about product purchasing that include rankings and information about electronics or household items (www.pricegrabber.com, http://www.best-price.com, http://shopper.cnet.com). My old camera has died so I was trying to figure out what's the best replacement. The websites were helpful.”

Heidi’s experiences with CAAB were so inspiring that she signed up as a volunteer with the DC Earned Income Tax Credit (DC EITC) Campaign, which helps low-income workers file their taxes and receive District and federal tax credits. “I had never done my own taxes and they gave me a crash course,” she explains. “It was great to help people in the community and help people get money back that they had earned."

Heidi graduated with honors from culinary school in December and just completed her second season as a volunteer tax preparer. She's utilizing her practical money skills and creative energies while she keeps her eye on her long-term goal of eventually owning her own business.