Guest post by Brandy at Team Chandler
Thanks to Crystal’s post about paying 100% down on their home I was encouraged to participate in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. The idea of owning my own home in my 30’s seemed like a foreign idea — something that just couldn’t be done.
At the same time, I began reading couponing blogs at night while I stayed up with our newborn to learn about how to save money. And, it all made sense to me! I was literally wasting money on things that had a temporary value rather than investing long term in my home and in the lives of my children. Quickly that “value meal” or that nice outfit didn’t hold as much value as assigning those dollars to the principal on my home.
You see my goal is to pay off my home so that I can work less and spend more time with my children. The idea of being able to focus solely on the role of a true “stay-at-home” mom is exciting, but to do this we have to set our mind right and be good stewards of the money the Lord has given us.
Around June of 2010, we started to make some drastic changes. We had already started Financial Peace University, and it was time for change! We began implementing some strategies:
1. Search for a better deal on home mortgages.
At the time we had a 30 year mortgage at 5.875%. I had been casually watching the rates, but as they dipped, I started calling around. I was able to get a 15-year mortgage at 3.875%. This change alone saved us $30-40,000 in interest from decreasing the years.
2. Make changes in our spending habits.
We really wanted to scale back our spending and throw any extra money at the end of the month at our mortgage. Once our cable/landline contract was up, we cut that expense completely. This saved us about $100/month at the time not including the increase we were fixing to have once the promotion ended.
3. Increase our coupon strategies.
I was already seeing good savings from my couponing and tried to be disciplined in this area. My savings at first were $500-1,000 a month. Once I had my stockpile in place, I was able to drastically reduce our grocery bill.
4. Keep records of our budget.
I used a spreadsheet to track every penny that comes in and out of our house. At the end of the month, I literally total them up and we make an extra “principal” payment toward our house.
5. Change from credit cards to cash.
I had been sold on the idea of using my card to earn points to pay down my mortgage. After listening to FPU, I realized that I was probably spending more as I was earning those points than if I would just set aside $20-25 a month to send in as an extra payment to principal.
It has been about six months since we started to actively make additional payments towards principal. And, I am amazed at the results! In the 8 years of our 30-year loan, we had only paid off 14% of the principal. Only 14%!
In the last 6 months, we have been blessed to pay off 6% of the original mortgage amount. It may not sound like a lot, but compared to only paying off 14% in 8 years, I am ecstatic!
Brandy is a working mom of two. She enjoys spending time with her family, couponing, running, writing, and homeschooling. She also enjoys documenting their life’s adventures at Team Chandler.
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I am just wondering how you saved $500 to $1,000 a month on coupons. That seems like quite a bit of money. I don’t spend near that on our family of 4.
I think it is wonderful Team Chandler has been able to accomplish their finanacial goals. I am a stay at home mom as well and we are blessed enough to be in a good financial position through hard work and planning, I also understand not everyone is in the same position we are in and therefore, each situation is unique. We are debt free except for our mortgage – we are in a situation where it is not financially the best move to pay off our mortgage. There are times when it may not be best for every family for a variety of reasons and most financial planners will tell you that. Hence, the old “your situation is unique to you” disclaimer.
I don’t like to see people who post and are discouraged, particularly when they are simply dealing with some circumstances of life that many people understand. I am certain these posts are meant to be inspiring and not to make anyone feel bad about themselves. If you feel that way after reading them – you may need to just take a break and focus on the portions that let you know you are doing the best you can for your family (as evidenced by the fact you are reading blogs like this!!). Be proud of your accomplishments even when they seem small and remember it takes time to reach whatever YOUR families goals may be!
Definitely. In my post, the primary reason why I focused on percentages was so each person reading it could relate. It can be discouraging at times when you hear someone say they are saving more money in a month than you are making. When I say 6% in 6 months or so, I hope it is a point of encouragement so that others can immediately think back to their mortgage, debt, etc and think…what is 6% for me? How can I cut back here or there to make this happen! For the most part, it was eye opening for me to realize that I was “wasting” money on things that we didn’t “need”. I do hope this has been an encouraging post b/c it has been others who have shared that I have learned so much valuable information.
But, I say all that to also say that my husband and I are a daily work in progress and depend on the Lord for guidance. We are certainly not immune to challenges and are just taking it one day at a time.
I love your comment!
Thank you for such an inspirational post!
I find the idea of paying down our mortgage early to be very encouraging. We are new to this site and are doing our best to save and coupon (just not the same opportunities up here in Canada!) We have been adding some additional money to our principal.
We have a diverse family make-up … 4 children, 2 with special needs (Down syndrome and cerebral palsy) and 2 with allergies (peanuts/tree nuts and dairy). It sometimes make saving money in conventional ways a bit more challenging.
Anyway, the real reason for my post is a question about housing. We have 4 children: 9 yo girl, 8 yo boy, 5 yo girl and 2 yo girl. We live in a modest, 1385 sf house and are very happy here. We have 3 bedrooms and currently, the 9 and 8 year old share, the 5 and 2 year old share. For the sake of frugality, we would like to stay in a house this size. However, we’re considering moving up to a 4 bedroom house so that the older girl and boy can have separate bedrooms. Of course, a larger house means higher expenses ….
What would you do??
If you are happy there (and it sounds like you are from your post), why not try some remodeling???
Our house is that size and I imagine it wouldn’t be that hard to knock down some walls and rearrange space for either another bedroom or move toys/books somewhere else so that there was more room for beds in a girls room. Extra clothes can always go in a hall closet etc when its off-season. I think I would try to be creative but that’s just me, and I like small houses 🙂
Knocking down walls is, unfortunately, not an option. But we’ve toyed with the idea of putting all the girls together … or giving up our basement playroom and turning it into a bedroom for our oldest.
Fortunately the older two don’t seem to mind sharing yet … but I can’t see that continuing indefinitely!
Thanks for your input. 🙂
Thanks for sharing! We hope to have all our debt paid off this year so we can work on getting the 6 months of our Emergency Savings built up. Love Dave Ramsey’s baby steps, anyone can do them. We have always paid a little extra on our mortgage and look forward to paying it off completely once we complete the couple phases before it.
Just for clarification, paying off your mortgage early may not be the best idea in every situation – if you have outstanding credit card, personal debt, car loans, or no savings you may be better off putting your money towards those debts and building up an emergency fund first then you can work on paying off your mortgage.
I highly recommend Dave Ramsey’s book, website, and resources because he offers a great step by step system that can be beneficial for any family. If you are looking for spreadsheets try Mint or Quicken for your personal finance tracking plus it gives you all the graphs, charts, and visuals as well.
I very much agree. Thanks for sharing!
I absolutely agree…..paying off your mortgage is definitely not the best idea in every situation. I would also add (although I know many who read this site would disagree) that paying down all debt is also not the best idea IF you don’t have an emergency savings account. I am not a Dave Ramsey fan or follower, mainly because I don’t agree with having only $1000 in the bank while you pay down all debt. I would never feel safe with only $1000 in the bank. While I do agree that high interest credit card and other debts should be paid off as soon as possible, I think it is possible to pay down (what I feel is) good debt, like student loans, 0% car loans, and mortgages, WHILE saving up an emergency fund at the same time. Just my opinion.
Emily – I agree with you!
I am confused about your comment regarding $1000 in the bank. Dave Ramsey suggests having a 3-6 month emergency fund built up BEFORE putting extra money towards paying off your debts.
Thanks for a motivating post!
Would love more posts like this Crystal! Thanks for all that you do 🙂
I hope to be sharing many more like this in the near future. Glad you enjoyed it!
Can you share a sample of your spreadsheet that you use for tracking purposes? Do you categorize somehow, or just simply list ins and outs? Sounds like a great idea! Thank you!
I feel like I could have written this post! Crystal and Jesse’s story has inspired us to work on paying down our principal too! We are blessed to have a fairly small (by American standards) mortgage and a decent income, so it seems that once we set out goal on cutting away at the principal, it’s going quickly!
The “down” side for us is that after we pay off our present house (our goal is five years from now), we plan to sell and buy something bigger that better fits our family. I’m guessing the idea of another mortgage will feel anti-climactic after paying off our first mortgage quickly, but at least we won’t be increasing our house payment substantially in order to get a bigger home. We’ll see how that all pans out in the years ahead…
We have also been inspired to pay down our mortgage. It feels good. But we are looking to buy a larger house in an area with a better high school. So I can totally relate to your comment.
You might find it difficult to “pull the trigger” and borrow money for another house.
Yes, though a tight squeeze with an expanding family will probably be enough to convince us! 😉
I’m not a financial genius, but have been a real estate investor (we owned 13 rental houses at one time) and am still a real estate junkie. I think housing prices will continue to decline before they stabilize nation-wide. The key is to know your area. Each town is different. Areas within towns are different. One thing I learned as an investor is to know the area where you are buying very, very well. Watch the values carefully. Zillow.com is a great web site for following trends in your area of interest. It lists the financial history of most houses even if they aren’t on the market.
The housing market isn’t stable yet because the job market isn’t stable yet… and banks are much more strict about how they lend money. Supply and demand – not enough people have the 20% down payment many banks require now so there are fewer people to buy houses. If they are un- or underemployed, they won’t any time soon either. With housing values down, many people can’t afford to sell their current houses and buy up. There is too much supply of housing and not enough demand. That trend doesn’t look like it will change until more people have jobs again.
Just my two-cents. I am older than most of you (53) and have been through two real estate boom/bust cycles. We had one in the 80’s too.
Dee-
I too have a background in real estate and I agree with you 100%.
I also don’t predict the market “going back up” in some areas and just stabilizing to a “new” level of normal market value.
Thanks for the info!
Hi, Dawn,
After the last bust in the 8o’s, the real estate market in Connecticut was flat for 10 years. I won’t be surprised if that happens again.
So inspiring! We too have been attempting to pay down our principal with gazelle intensity! We just completed our last Financial Peace class LAST NIGHT and are TRYING (oh so hard) to pay off our house within 3 years.
My husband is a Nursing Home Administrator and the majority of his salary is bonus-based (according to accounts receivable, census, etc), so it makes it difficult to plan (and budget, for that matter). But he had a really good year this last year and we were able to put a large chunk towards the principal. It’s so fun to see that principal amount dip down and even more fun to dream about not having a mortgage payment!
We’re working Dave Ramsey’s baby steps and are paying extra every month on our mortgage. We also recently refinanced from a 30 year to a 15 year. With the refinance and extra payments, we should have our mortgage paid off in 9 years. Working to increase our extra snowball each month so it can be paid off sooner than 9 years though! Can’t wait to be completely debt free!
Mary Ellen
The Working Home Keeper
Keep up the good work, you will get there before you know it!
Be encouraged, everyone, it can be done! We paid our last mortgage payment last December and are completely debt-free! (we are both in our 30s–only hubby works and I homeschool our 5 kids.) Yes, it does take commitment, sacrifice, and a “gazelle-like intensity”, but it feels so good! 🙂
I loved this encouraging post! I think there are many things that can be cut from a persons spending to enable us to reach BIG goals.
I am 27 and my husband is 36 we paid off our tiny ranch style home in 2009 after being inspired by Crystal to check into the Dave Ramsey program. We are currently a family of 6, and we are squeezed into an around 1000 square foot house. We are saving to pay cash for a bigger house, with the original goal of May 2013. Reading how other people are meeting their dreams really helps to encourage me to keep at it.
we have given up everything extra – magicjack for a phone, slower internet connection which pays for itself between the majicjack and researching deals, no cell phones, no cable, no traveling, no driving the car unless needful, very little eating out (well, 2 times in the last 6 months, all with coupons, for a total cost of $55), all clothes and shoes from thrift store or target clearance rack with coupons, serious rite aid shopping to the tune of less than $8/mo. for hundreds of dollars of toiletries, no extracurricular activities that cost anything for our homeschooled kids, i cut everyone’s hair but my own (cheap cut with coupon twice a year for me) – i line dry as often as possible, make everything i can from scratch, will use anything i can get free with a coupon – we paid off $16K in debt in 7 months using dave ramsey’s principles with only $31K in income during that time and are now in high hysteria mode to finish getting our 6 month emergency fund together – we still owe on our house and i can not justify any extra junk when we have no college savings – our hope is that if we can get this house paid off, we can pay cash as we go for college – i am so done being enslaved to debtors – all this frugality is painless compared to how we felt when we were without steady income for 6 months in 2009-2010 – we are now earning 60% less than we were in 2009 and i am not sure we will ever see that kind of money again – and if we do, we will be saving it!
What a wonderful post! Keep up the good work and don’t be discouraged. And by the way Brandy, your kiddos are cute as pie! 🙂
Thanks!
I don’t have a mortage (I rent a townhome and share expenses with a friend/roomate.) We are both late 20’s. I do have a student loan that I am trying to pay down. Similar concept to paying off a mortage. I pay extra off on the principal whenever I can. I even found a part time job (12 hrs/week) and NO MATTER WHAT 50% of my take home pay from this job goes directly to the loan. I work in a high school and I figured I work 35 hrs a week, the kids work (go to school) 35 hrs a week, if they can have a part time job-so can I! Would appreciate any other tips on how to pay down this loan faster. Also, I would LIKE to buy a house some day, but I’m not married and with this student loan debt (currently approx $3,000) I don’t feel like I can take on more debt in the form of a mortage. Hense… I rent. Any thoughts? Advice? I have an emergency savings account already ($1,500.) I want to start saving for a future home, but with this debt… hard to decide which is more important. Pay off loan or save for house? Trying to be financially wise. Thanks!
100% have an emergency fund, then pay off your debt with the highest interest-rate (in your case, the student loan). Then start saving for a house. Maybe you and your roommate could move into a less expensive apartment/townhome. If neither of you are home much, go down to a 1-bedroom and share. Would save a ton of $$!
BTW, it might make you feel better….we will have $180,000 in student loans from my husband going to Pharmacy school. We live off my income, but just the schooling costs that much. And to those that were going to say: go to a cheaper school, I calculated out the cost of him having to take an extra year of prerequisites, and the cost of him getting done with school a year earlier, and it made sense to go to the more expensive school and have more loans. Just putting that out there before I get lots of comments on it!
I’m in the same situation! I am almost done with my first year of prepharmacy. I have about 25,000 in debt from this year. Next year will cost me about 15,000. My 1st and 2nd year of pharmacy school will be around 20,000 each. My last two years will cost me about 35,000. So total, I’m looking at about 130,000. 🙁 there is also no way to go to a cheaper school. The other pharmacy schools closest to me are boston or albany.. but my motivation to stick with it (besides enjoying to work with people and a love of chemistry) is a 100,000 per year starting salary so hopefully I will pay the loans off quickly!!
Exactly! I look at my husband’s student loans as a home mortgage so I don’t get so discouraged:)
My student loan is my only debt (thankfully.) But I only have an associates degree and would like to return to school to work towards a Bachelors, but again… can’t return to school and take out MORE student loans AND save for a downpayment for a house AND payoff the current student loan. $3,000 worth of debt might not seem like much to some, but for a single person on my income with my current expenses, it’s a lot. The minimum due is $50/month, I automatically have $75 direct transfered from my account monthly, plus pay extra on top of that from my part time job and when I have extra money. Want to return to school, but won’t probably get this paid off for another year or two at best. Then I would start saving to return to school (to avoid more loans.) By the time I have enough saved up I will be STARTING my bachelors in my late 30’s. And then starting a new career at 40. Not that it can’t be done, but would like to get going ASAP on school. I’ve read a few of Dave Ramsey’s books and scoured the internet looking for advice. No help thus far. I’m 27 and don’t qualify for the majority of scholarships because they are max age 25, but I can’t afford to pay for school. What do I do? More student loans? More loans = more school = better degree = new career = more money earned… but also = more debt. Debt = bad. Higher paying job =good. I HATE that loans seem to be a necessary evil. The dream of owning a house will have to wait until I’m 50+ Sorry to ramble. Just looking for advice. Everyone says AVOID DEBT. I’m a STRONG supporter of this idea. But in my current job, I pay my bills. I make ends meet. But that’s about it. Work for a school, so spend school year saving for summer. I’m not a teacher so not year round salary. Found part time job which will continue into summer, that will help. Any thoughts/advice? Anyone else in similar situation? Want to return to college, but don’t want student loans. Anyone been in this position? How did you handle it? Thanks in advance.
I’m not sure what you are hoping to major in. But I finished my Bachelor’s with no debt. I passed out of a lot of courses by taking tests, life experience, etc. Look into Thomas Edison College and Excelsior College. My alma mater was the later – though at the time it was the University of the State of NY, but has since become private. It was a lot of work and legwork on my part, but more than worth it.
I can think of a few options, none of which might work, but they are worth a try.
First, can you look for a new job that has better benefits? Sometimes there are jobs out there that pay for you to further your schooling. I got my Master’s Degree primarily on my employer’s dime. They only paid $2000 per year for education reimbursement, so I took one course per semester, and it took me 4 1/2 years! But I didn’t have to quit my job to go to school, and I didn’t have too many expenses. Another related option would be to look for a job at a University. Many schools offer free or reduced tuition if you work there.
Which leads me to my second idea. If you cannot find a new job which pays educations expenses, go to school very part time. Yes, it may take years and years that way. But, it will be done eventually. Plus, if you end up finding yourself with more money, you can always take more classes later on. Look into doing one class per semester. This should keep you costs at a minimum. Look at all ways to pay for this one class. Which leads to my third idea.
Shop around for colleges. I don’t know what state you are in, but state schools are often, by far, the cheapest option. When I went for my Master’s program, I was living in Maryland. University of Maryland was $600 per class. A private school nearby was triple that! And don’t assume that all state colleges cost the same. Some are still cheaper than others.
I’m already in my 40’s, so I admit I’m not that familiar with all of the online options that are available. But, it may be worth looking into whether you can take classes for credit online from a reputable college that would be cheaper than taking them in person. I really don’t know, but thought I’d throw that out there.
Hope some of these ideas help or maybe spark some new ideas for you. Best of luck to you!
I will say that you should look for a job at a University. I work full-time at a University so that my classes are free. I go to classes in the evenings, and pay under $100 per class! I will have my masters done next May, and it will take me 3.5 years.
Wow, thank you for this inspiring and encouraging post! Our mortgage is our only debt…and it kind of feels hopeless at times. But I think you just gave me the “kick in the pants” I needed to really buckle down and pay it off!!
I know just what you mean! We’ve had our house six years, put 10% down, and since our refi two years ago have been paying an extra 50% each month toward our principle. Friday we got a mortgage statement in the mail and I allowed myself to get excited looking at how much we’ve paid down thinking we had more equity than I thought, even with the house being worth less than what we paid (according to Zillow which I’m not sure is all that accurate). Then I did the math including all the interest we’ve paid and that totaled something like $40K! OUCH!!!!
So yeah, we’re going to start putting even more toward the principle each month!
I posted a few posts above yours. I printed out an amortization sheet. That way, if I paid a certain amount, I could also see how much interest I was saving with that payment, plus how many months or years I was paying off at once.
We’ve done the calculations and know the amount we’re paying will tackle the loan on 15 rather than 30 years. We did not choose a 15 or 10 year mortgage for various reasons but that’s another issue. It still can get discouraging to realize when you finance *anything* you are paying huge amounts of interest. I paid plenty of stupid tax disguised as credit card interest in my twenties. Some lessons need to be learned the hard way, unfortunately.
I literally would play around with financial calculators online. I would put in some money and pull up a table to show how much paid in additional principal today would yield in returns later. It was exciting to see how even $20-25 here or there could make a big difference in the long term.
This really motivated me to turn our “wasted” money into an intentional finacial goal for the long term. My husband and I were talking one night about how we could forfeit eating out 1 time a month and put that money toward our principal instead. It was exciting to think of it that way, which is how we eventually made the change to dropping the cable/phone. We weren’t using them enough to justify that much money each month.
We really are happier and healthier since.
Thanks for this encouraging post! We are in the process of doing the EXACT same thing (putting every extra penny towards paying off our mortgage). So far, we have paid off 19.5%. Some days it’s hard to stay motivated, which is where great posts like this come in handy–thanks!
Way to go!!!
We also did this. It was a great blessing from God. We refinanced from our fixed 30 year loan to an adjustable (which Dave does not recommend) but I asked lots and lots of questions. We found a mortgage rate I have never heard of before or since. 1.875%!!! The highest the interest could ever go was back up to approximately what our original, fixed loan was. I wanted to quit my job. We lived on my husband’s income and paid all of my income after tithes and sometimes some of my husband’s income, towards our mortgage. I will have to say that I had a high paying job, for which I am thankful. We paid it off in about 7-1/2 years from when we purchased our home. We also saved approximately $140,000 in interest. I am a numbers nerd and figured all this out. ha! It is a great, freeing feeling to have no debt and also no mortgage payment. After we paid off our house, we also used my income to build up an emergency fund and saved for various things, also, before I actually quit. I love staying at home!!
You made a great decision waiting until those things were completed before quitting your job. I see so many bloggers quit their jobs because they feel like God has called them to stay home, but then they can’t even put shoe on their kids’ feet without Government assistance (NOT referring to moneysavingmom). I applaud you for your faithful use of your finances!
How did you approach the bank to change the interest and how many years your loan is? Did you have to pay closing costs again? If not, how did you get those waived?
I am definitely not a financial expert, but….
What I would recommend is contacting banks in your area to see what the current rates are and compare that with the rate you have now. We did have to pay closing costs to refinance, but the difference long term was worth the additional closing costs we were going to face then.
I really watched the trends for several months, waiting for it to dip low enough for it to be worth it to us to refinance. Hope this helps.
It makes a HUGE difference if you go from a 30-year mortgage to a 15-year mortgage. That is usually when it is most helpful to refinance.
Crystal, I started with $0 when I was pregnant with my son 4 yrs ago. Today I have 20% to put down on my house I will be buying in Southern California next month. It took a lot of sacrificing but I have been following your blog for so long and I have been very determined. It may not be 100% down but I am so grateful at what I have saved and my goal will be to pay off this mortgage as quickly as I can.
Woohoo! I am so very proud of you! I’d love for you to share your story as a post on my blog with details how you did this, if you’d be willing to. I think others would be so encouraged!
yes I would love to hear her story it sounds very inspirational!!!
I wish we had some extra money at the end of paying the bills every month to put towards our mortgage. We have cut back everywhere we could but are still struggling to keep ourselves above water. I don’t have the money to put gas in my car this week I hope it will last till payday. We only have our 2 car payments (which I wish we didn’t have) and our mortgage but no credit card debt…we have no credit cards. I get discouraged more and more each day because I want so bad to be able to pay off either my mortgage or at least one of the cars if not all 3. My husband is working 2 jobs and just applied for a 3rd and I am a stay at home mom and run an in-home daycare(which really doesn’t pay at all). To top everything off we are expecting #5 in July and I still have 2 in diapers(one child is special needs and is having a hard time being potty trained and the other one is only 19 months old). Sorry for the long rant I am just more and more frustrated everyday and when I try to talk to my mom she changes the subject to something else(obviously no support there).
Perhaps you could sell one of the cars to give you some breathing room? It is hard having only one car, but if you stay at home, maybe it would work?
If the in-home daycare doesn’t pay, then either raise your rates, or stop it. Then you would at least have more time and less stress – two things that can’t be measured in $.
I wouldn’t worry too much about paying the mortgage early yet. Get rid of the car debt and get an emergency fund first. Then, when it’s not just a matter of keeping your head above water, you can focus on bigger goals, like the mortgage.
Good luck with your challenges!
I agree with Heather, just have one car, is possible. Also agree with Heather that if you are not making money on your daycare, then stop doing it. Then you can devote time to a part-time job. You can swap days with another mom and work the days the other mom has your kids, and she can work the days you have her kids. Your kids will thank you for it!
It might be hard for her because she has a child with special needs. I would be surprised if she could survive without a car having 4 little ones, one with special needs, and another on the way. It really sounds like she is doing absolutely everything she can, and so is her husband. I highly doubt she is in a situation where she could leave her 4 kids (remember, one with special needs) with another mom who has kids of her own to watch.
Thank you Aubrey! Not too many people are up for watching 4 kids and another on the way.
Perhaps selling one car to buy an older but reliable car in it’s place might be another viable option to just being a 1 car family. With 2, possibly 3 jobs for hubby I can imagine it would be extremely difficult to do with just 1 car.
I have thought about selling one car off but the problem is my child with special needs has a lot of medical issues as well and I have several dr. appts. for her all the time and it would be very difficult for me to be at home without a car, especially in an emergency. The vehicle that we have is older and believe it or not I just hit a deer a couple of weeks ago to the point it needed to be towed it punctured the radiator as well, and I am still driving a rental. I wish I could get a part time job, however being 7 months pregnant no one will hire me and not too many places are hiring right now. Most of my daycare kids are before and after care which is nice, but I have one family who stresses me out so bad and I wish I had someone to fill that child’s spot so I could stop stressing over that. My rates are rather high for our area and I have had people walk away because they can find care elsewhere cheaper, and to give it up right now would mean no income where as at least right now I am bringing in a little yeah it isn’t much but at least it is something.
I’m sorry to hear about these struggles, for I feel like I know your situation all too well. I tell myself that there will come a day to devote attention to paying down the mortgage, but I’ve had to recognize that I can’t focus my time and energy on that right now. My husband is usually working between 2 and 3 jobs, I work, and we still don’t have enough to cover all the bills. We are daily living on God’s grace.
As others have said, if at all possible, getting rid of as many cars as possible would be a big step. It might be inconvenient, but you will save money on payments, taxes, and insurance. I have done at-home childcare and used cloth diapers on two of my children at that time. My oldest was very, very hard to potty train. Switching to cloth was what it took to finally get him to the point that he wanted to be potty trained. (I would not look into the expensive cloth diapers, just something like a good cotton pre-fold and a wrap like the Thirsties.)
Best wishes for you! Don’t give up or get discouraged. Don’t get overwhelmed by comparing your situation to that of someone else. (That has been what has been hard for me.)
Also – don’t get rid of a car if you only have liability on the car and it is not worth much. For example, we have a car that is worth $200. We only have liability insurance on it, and since we then get a multi-car discount, we are better off keeping it even if it doesn’t run (and insuring it), than getting rid of it and not getting the multi-car discount.
I just want to say that I think you are awesome and hang in there. Not having credit card debt is huge and the other stuff can wait even though its frustrating!!! At least you aren’t going backwards which is more then I can say for a lot of people (myself included lol)!
If you have the time for a load of laundry every other day, prefold diapers and FLIP covers are really easy and cheap to use but like I said, you sound crazy busy so one more load might be too much.
However, the FLIP diapers are one size and can be bought pretty cheaply and they wipe out easily so you don’t have to wait for them to dry and they could be interchanged between kids because they adjust sizes. Like 5 covers for 3 kids could be done easily with prefolds so all three were in the same diapers. It might be worth checking into, or maybe not. Just a suggestion. But hang in there!!! *hugs*
ps–I’m Beth T lol (realizing theres another Beth commenting all over this page)
🙂
Ha ha! I’ll start commenting as Beth B
Heather,
I have had 2-3 in diapers for the last 7 years (3 in diapers twice). I understand. At that point I did try cloth again (as others suggested) but it was too much with that many children in diapers and a nursing baby; I was changing diapers all day long! It was so much that I didn’t have time to cook or anything, and I struggled to get the laundry done.
I would love to pay my mortgage off, too, but we’re not there right now. There is a time and a season for everything. My husband has been underemployed for 4 years. Just making ends meet has been quite a challenge.
We have often felt that we couldn’t cut anything else, but then, we would find some other way to cut something else, if even in the tinest way. We have done things to cut our utilities. We make our least expensive meals more often, and I have found ways to make those meals for even less (I buy oats, beans, and rice in bulk, for example). Right now most meals are .50 to $1 for my family of 8 (and we have leftovers from a lot of them!) It turns out that toddlers LOVE beans! (And I love giving them to them so much more than Cheerios, which I gave to my older 3 when they were little).
It is harder for you as well since your husband is probably gone more often since he is working more hours. That’s tough!
Here’s what we do to save money; perhaps there is something else that you can find that you could do as well. I am always looking for ways to be more frugal.
You are doing great with the debt that you have. You don’t have medical bills or other things hanging over your heads (from what you mentioned); the cars will eventually be paid off, the repairs will get done from your accident, and it will be okay. Paying off your debt might not be as quick as you like, but it is still happening, even though it is slow. You are about to have another wonderful baby in your life! How blessed you are!
DH and I got serious about getting out of debt in 2005. We both read Total Money Makeover during the week between Christmas 2004 and New Years 2005. At the time the only debt we had was the last payment on our truck and our mortgage. Our first order of business was to beef up our small emergency fund to six months. This took a month or two. Then we went to work at getting rid of the mortgage. In May of 2007 we did it and have remained debt free since. It ended up being a very wise move since DH was laid off December of 2008 and didn’t go back to work until May of 2010. We were able to live just fine on my part time income and had more money in the back after the lay-off than before. The odd thing is that we no longer live in this particular house (we moved in October of 2010) and currently rent it out to a great tenant that wants to live there (something that really no longer worked for us). Anyway, Brandy I applaud you effort and it gets more and more exciting the closer you get (partially because so much more is principal and not interest.)
Chris, did you buy a new home or are you renting? Just curious to see if you have a payment now.
We are renting. In our current location we could afford to buy a few houses in town outright with the cash we currently have and could buy nearly any house in town with cash plus the proceeds from our current home (if/when we sold it). We are reluctant to buy any house because of uncertainy about DH’s current job and how difficult it is to sell a house at nearly any price point in this community. DH works for the biggest employer in town and they already said they are planning a big lay off.
Anyway we are renters for reasons that have more to do with our particular circumstances. I think we would both like to be home owners again at some point.
We implemented a similar strategy and paid off our home in 6.5 years. I’m going part time (80%) starting next month, am interviewing with a different company to possibly work only 15 hours weekly, from home… and if my DD is accepted into early start kindergarten, then I’m quitting (the 80% position) to stay home so I can oversee her education and care for my 10mo. I also do freelance writing for two companies and we have NO debt. We’ve paid our student loans (my bachelors and masters, his bachelors), have paid-off cars and no mortgage. And we didn’t get help from our families and we do not have high paying jobs.
We shop secondhand, rarely take vacations (one in 9 years of marriage– and that was our “honeymoon”), coupon, do without cable, I’m the barber, and so on and so forth.
Thanks to our blessings we actively seek to bless others. I donate to a maternity resource center, a no-kill cat shelter, our local food bank, and I freecycle lots and lots. I also help family members and friends by giving them food and toiletries when they are in need. We do not belong to a particular church so we do not tithe to a church but we tithe to the community instead. Our kids do go to a church daycare and that costs much more than 10% of our income, so there’s that I guess! 🙂
Not implying you are wrong at all, but wouldn’t you rather continue working to provide your children with activities like music, sports, vacations, etc. That all costs money. Just trying to see into the lifestyle a bit.
I did not participate in sports or music as a child (no interest) but I did teach myself needlework, gardening/botany, and so on. My parents grew up not going on vacations and not participating in paid activities. My husband did one sport for one year of high school (swimming). He learned piano from his parents. Otherwise, he learned fixing things and woodworking from his grandpa, and computers on his own.
I ABSOLUTELY hate my job. I have hated it for 3 years. My husband loves his job, although it pays less than mine.
With me working, my kids and husband get a mommy and wife who is stressed out, impatient, annoyed, sarcastic, exhausted, frustrated, and so on. The only benefit of my job, is the paycheck. I went into this field (public health) because I had a passion for it when I started. Not so much any longer.
I was also hospitalized with PPD after giving birth to my son. It was severe. I nearly committed suicide. I also have some other stress-related health problems that have sprung up in the past year. This in someone who exercises daily, does not smoke or drink and eats a healthful diet.
As for vacations, I could not care less. I am a homebody. I strongly dislike traveling. I would rather go to our local zoo than drive or fly across the country. When we do travel (to see our family out of state), it is a pain because it is all on me to do the logistics, packing, arrange care for our cats and house, then when we get home again it’s all on me to do all the catch-up. Not a vacation if you ask me!
I think it is more worthwhile for my kids to live in a happy home with a mother who is alive and well, than it is to be involved in three or four or five expensive extracurricular activities (as if my 10 month old son cares about that?).
I personally am more concerned about making sure we have the $$$ to pay for the orthodontic work we know they will need when they’re teenagers, than having the $$$$ to pay for competitive cheer and whatnot.
Makes sense, especially considering your job situation. I hope you start to feel better, and exhausted mommy turns into fun, happy mommy!
I should add, I did do one activity once I was about 11. I took ballet for 3 years. Rather than an allowance, my parents paid for that ($17 per month; at the time, had been getting $5 weekly allowance). Once I got to be 14, I had babysitting jobs that kept me very busy so I didn’t have time for the dance and I had moved onto other interests anyhow. At 16, I waitressed 2-3 nights weekly and 1 weekend shift, and at 17 I worked in a supermarket cashiering and I still babysat. So I just didn’t have time for intensive activities. My husband was similar in that he also worked, babysat and did lawnmowing thru high school.
And thank you for your well-wishes. Crystal has been a big help to me personally with her prayers, and I’ve found online support groups for mothers with postpartum depression, received counseling, joined a local PPD group and took medication for 9 months. It took me months to bond with my sweet baby boy, and I hate that we lost those first few months due to PPD. I know I have been blessed and that God and many angels are watching over me!
I agree with you. Having a “happy” mommy is so much more important than extraciricular activities. Plus, there are many creative ways to offer these to your children. You can request them as gifts for birthdays or Christmas from extended family. Our city’s Park and Rec dept. offers low cost sports, art, martial arts classes. Children grow up so fast. Enjoy this time with them. Their success in life will not be determined by how many sports they played or if they took music or art. They will remember the time that you spent with them as a healthy, happy mom. Good luck!!
@Sarah;
I have often wondered about this for my own life because I have chosen to stay home and I wonder if my son will regret possibly not having as much money or stuff as if I worked eventually. However, I remember my dad always worked when I was young and I never got to see him. He died when I was only fifteen and I have only about five memories of stuff we did together. My son might not have everything, but I can guarantee that he will have lots of memories of things that my husband and I have done with him 🙂
Beth,
My mom stayed home with my siblings and me. We didn’t have money or, most of the time, even a second car to make it possible to do a lot of the extracurricular things my friends did. We did what limited things we could, but I can honestly say I do not regret missing out on the many activities we “could have” afforded to be involved in.
100% not saying you are wrong. Every situation is different. I will say that I am so thankful that my mom stayed home with me AND I got to do activities. I won’t say they didn’t struggle because of it, because they did. I think finding a balance between working and being with your kids is the right way to go. To say our kids have never had a babysitter is crazy. I want to make sure my kids have access to activities and sports if they want to, but I also want to be at every single practice and game. I personally am so thankful that I got to be in activities. There are so many things I learned that I would not have learned staying home with my mom and not having interaction with other kids, other figures of authority, etc. but thats juts me.
I am curious if she could share the spreadsheet she uses to track spending. This is the ‘link’ that I feel like we are missing between our planned budget and really fine tuning our expenses.
Hopefully she can share! In the mean time, here are a few free spreadsheets you can download:
https://moneysavingmom.com/2011/01/four-free-budgeting-resources.html
I started using mint.com and really like it. I see all of my accounts in one place and every transaction.
I have really learned so much in the last year or so about financial responsibility. While we didn’t have much debt other than our home, we were definitely “wasting” money on the short-term. It is exciting to see that principal decrease each month.
YAY! To them for sticking it out! It’s be frustrating because 6 months of scrimping and saving can feel like a lifetime- to see such a ‘small’ reward. But, they are keeping the focus on the long term goal!
Congratulations! If you keep it up, you’ll be done soon!
Tiffany
We are also paying every extra penny we have to our mortgage. We hope to have our house paid off 6 years from when we bought it vs 30 years. We are very frugal but we also have a goal in sight and a plan to reach it.
hhhhm….. I wonder if Dave Ramsey is available on Amazon where I can use my swagbuck gift cards.
Yes…but you can get the book for free from the library if you choose. That saves you the most money!
Hi ya Cousins 🙂
Thanks for the info on the great website. Love going through all these blogs!
If you are disciplined enough to do it, you should 100% start paying down your loan with the highest interest rate first, NOT your lowest debt. If you calculate it out, and you have numerous debts, this will save you thousands of dollars. Dave’s snowball process works, but it sounds like most of you are disciplined to do it the right way. Don’t believe me? Go to a personal money manager/financial planner and they will show you the dollar differences. If the $25 extra payments to your $13,000 credit card debt don’t give you much hope and you won’t stick to it, stay with snowball. If you can keep it up, do it to save the most money and pay the highest interest rate first, regardless of dollar amount.
You’re right, Sara, and I’ve heard Dave Ramsey admit this on his program. We have school loans and have used this approach (tackling loans with the highest interest rate first) to pay them off. It doesn’t always “feel” like it makes the most sense, but it is definitely the most financially savvy approach if you’re disciplined.
I know he says it once in awhile, but I feel like people are REALLY missing out on this. I have tried to explain to to friends but they refuse to listen, because they are following the Dave snowball program. It is a great program and I am so thankful to see so many people trying to get a handle on their finances. BUT, on the other hand people are missing some really quality information that could save them money. Is the “paying highest interest-rate first” approach in his book?
Hm, I don’t know if it’s in Dave’s books or not. Whenever I’ve heard him mention it on his show he basically says he doesn’t advocate it because he doesn’t want you to lose momentum. I think the snowball approach makes sense for people who need that sense of accomplishment, but for those who are disciplined, want to save money and/or have fewer debts, the higher interest approach is best. This is why I don’t take financial advice hook, line and sinker without checking it out myself.
been a while since i read the book but yes, i believe the interest info/detail is in there…
You are right, but I think Dave says to start with one’s lowest dept because it will get paid off quicker and give some individuals a sense of accomplishment to motivate those who would otherwise fall off the plan, to keep going. I really like Dave Ramsey and all his materials and all of it works great for some people but my husband and I do some things different from what he says because we have found things that work better for us.
I guess it really depends on what your REAL goal ultimately is.
Some may have missed Dave’s point about why, after years of experience and degrees in finance, he still recommends paying debts off from lowest-to-highest amounts: it’s all about PERSONAL and not about the finance. While both aspects are important, the debt snowball is primarily about getting out of debt as fast as possible and not as much about paying out as little as possible.
We can crunch numbers all day and it will almost always work out cheaper to get out of debt by paying off debts from highest to lowest interest rates. However, the REALITY is that people are actually getting out of debt by following a highest-to-lowest debt approach because they see more progress sooner. Those successes further motivate and incentivize subsequent actions. I would vastly rather pay off 4 debts totaling $10K and have “only” 1 debt left of $5K than to have paid off only 2.25 debts with that same $10K.
I know people who succeeded by following Dave’s approach. Although I’m sure there are people out there who have gotten out of debt the other way, I don’t know anyone personally who was able to maintain momentum and succeed in getting out of debt by pursuing the mathematically advantageous way … and I’m including myself here!
It’s funny that this issue came up since I had already decided to revamp my debt worksheet to list things in a smallest-to-largest format. I want this over, done, gone. Thanks, Brandy and Crystal!!
Again – never said it was an approach no one should use, but was stating that for many disciplined people (as most on here seem to be!), I was letting them know they could save even more money by paying highest interest-rate first. No need to be combative.
My real ultimately goal is to get out of debt….as fast as possible. And if that means I pay highest interest-rate first, and it saves me $2,000, that means I am done paying off debt sooner. But, I am disciplined enough to do it this way, and have my husband’s support!
I’m sorry my words came across like that. Truly, my frame of mind was excited as I’ve had this recent change of perspective and thus practice, but sincerely was not intending to be combative.
This echoes my experience in terms of paying off the smallest debs debts first. I think it depends a lot on what kind of debt and each situation. In my case my smallest debts were actually the highest interest rates as they were department store and gas credit cards. It took me just 4 months to knock out 5 cards leaving me only 2 to focus on. I have no idea how well this would work with car loans or other kinds of debt. While my debt was significant in ratio to my income, $8k when I made $11k, it wasn’t as terrible as some stories I’ve heard. Especially when my income nearly tripled. I was also single, recently out of school, and had no kids. Much different than a couple with a family and uncertain job situations.
LOVE this! We also took FPU, and have gazelle like intensity! Our goal was for me to be a stay at home mom, and we thought the only way we could do that and continue our lifestyle was to get rid of the mortgage. I’m happy to say that after only 3 years of living in our home, we will be making the LAST mortgage payment next month!!!!!! Our first baby arrived this year, and it is so freeing to know I can be home with him and not worry about bills. It was a huge sacrafice leading up to this point, but we had a goal in mind and lived below our means for us to be able to achieve it. God bless Dave Ramsey and what he has tought us! It is not about how much you make, but how you spend it!
Congratulations! You are so right: “It is not about how much you make, but how you spend it!”. I was listening to the Dave Ramsey show a week or so ago and there was someone on there who makes $120 K per year and didn’t know how they were going to save up another $1,000 to purchase a $3,000 car. I stay home with our son, and my husband only makes around $34,000 per year. Hopefully, we will have our mortgage paid off next year!
Way to go on working so hard to pay off your mortgage!
My husband and I are borrowing Dave Ramsey’s DVD’s from a friend and actually going to start it tonight! I am really excited!
Yay!
I too was a stay at home mom and am proud to say that we lived ” within” our expenses before we had kids and after. We have paid off 7 cars, 2 college loans, equity loans, the cost of 2 kids in braces and we just recently paid our mortgage off and this all was done within a 20 yr. period. If we can do it, then anyone can. We never had cable, we never subscribed to magazines and only the Sunday newspaper(for coupons), I have always used coupons when I shop, we never paid for extras on our land line with call waiting, and caller id. We did not have cell phones until probably 10 yrs. ago. It is possible to downsize your life and to be happy-I got to stay home and raise my kids. My philosophy is that simple is better. We do not purchase stuff so that we can keep up with what others have and both my husband and I have an extremely good work ethic so we do whatever side jobs we have to so that we can supplement our income so that one of us is always with our kids. I knew when I wanted to stay home to raise my kids that I would have to give up on things for at least 18+ yrs. We have never hired a babysitter to watch our kids and our kids were never put in daycare. Anyone can do it if you work as a team.