Money, Money, Money

Yep, Money, one of my favorite topics. Well it is now, it sure wasn't when we had over 50k in medical debt. Back then it was find money and work and pay, pay, pay down debt. Where looking at the stack of bills made ya sick. Working 60 plus hours a week made me sick!

But lately I can't believe what a 360 money has taken in our lives. We have one debt and that is the house. Two years ago we cut our lives down to nothing. Freeing up money, no longer paying 125 a week in gas to get the kids to and from school. No longer paying for school. No longer paying all that extra weekly school stuff that would come up, from photos to birthdays, to raising money for this or that. 

But it really wasn't until about a year ago, we got to see the savings from cutting our lives down to nothing. We had some left over things to clear up, we had some things to fix up. Life

And so when we saw that extra savings, we made a plan. To pay down the house so we can re-fi and get rid of pmi. Well in the 18 months since the last re-fi we have went from 126,982.42 to as of Wednesday to 115,000 a big difference of nearly 12,000. 

After some chatting last week, hubby and I realized we should try to re-fi now as rates are dropping again and math wise we should be able to drop pmi? 

So after some chatting with mortgage guy. Yes, we can re-fi and drop pmi, but our rate is about the same. CRAP. But math wise our payment will drop to about 800ish a month, giving us breathing room. And if we keep on our same road, we would be paying our mortgage down by about 1,000 a month, verses the about 800 we are doing now. So math wise this works out better for us. 

So about 220ish principle payment, add in the 135 weekly, add in the 189ish difference in pay, as we save 1000 a month for Mortgage and if we have a payment of about 800-811 we send the difference to mortgage. Comes to nearly 1000 a month. When the final numbers drop we will have to see if we can come up with the difference so it's an equal 1000 towards principle every month. Then watch our mortgage drop. 

We talked about other money goals. We have a house fund, this fund is so we can buy some land down the road. We want to pay cash for anything in the future. This was just started a few months ago, and really it's a few dollars here and there. So hubby is taking that over, and he is on the hunt for money. Any extra money at the end of the week, we just cashed in our change jar, and that went in there. There is money, we just need to find it. 

Then we have an Emergency fund. Our money lady holds onto to that. Right now we have about three months saved up. I would love to double that and have 6 months saved up. This might be a hard goal to hit.

How are we able to do all this and live on one very small income? Well lets see, bills are down to bare basics. If we don't need it we don't buy it. I make a grocery list every week, I stick to a menu. If it's not on the list I don't buy it. If we want something we save a little something a week until we can afford it. We don't just run out and buy something. We don't go to stores just to walk around. We do things ourselves. Why hire someone when you can do something yourself? I have taught hubby that there is someone on youtube showing someone like him how to do something. It's how we fixed (and then replaced) the front faucet. Last year when Hannah hit the back faucet and sent water flying. We did hire someone to come out and fix that, because A. I was busy under the house cleaning up water. And B. it's a very used faucet, it needed to be fixed right. But that costs us over 300 dollars and wiped out our savings at the time. The front faucet costs 7 dollars. Big difference. And best of all, we say NO a LOT.

Yes, I do garden and save all the food I can and that off sets the food budget. But we also keep track of every single penny. And with keeping track of every penny and only using cash, it's very hard to let that money go to buy something that is just silly. I often find myself in a store, going off a list and crossing off this or that because I just don't want to spend money on it right now. 

So if mortgage guy is right we will miss our November and December mortgage payment. With the November payment we plan on buying loads of meat. I'm nearly out of hamburger and one more package of chicken and I may be set for a year? We plan on going and buying a few bags of flour, with winter coming it's hard for us to get out to the flour store. I need to get my sewing machine in for a tuning. Yes, I know I can do this myself, but it's been 12 years and I'm afraid the second I start to remove screws on what I will find? And the rest will go into savings to boost that up. December will go into the house fund.

And then come January, make a mortgage plan and stick to it and watch our mortgage drop. 

So I believe for now the Mortgage updates are done. We will know more later this week when we sit and chat with Mortgage guy. But in the end it's exciting. It's breathing room, and I like to breath. Just can't wait for the day we are under 100k. And I can now see that day coming. 

GOAL!, English, & Weekly Update

Well since Tucker got his new glasses he has taken off. Yesterday he finally finished up English Two. Told him English Three needs to be done by the end of our school year. That would leave him one year behind on English. With our new school schedule, English now gets done daily so we can probably hit this goal no problem.

This is the wall hanging I sent off last week. It wasn't what was in my head. But this is how it ended up on the fabric. I really like it. 

So Hit a Mortgage Goal this week. Currently sitting at 115,000. Thought long and hard about paying an extra dollar and being at 114,999. But wanted to see 115k. We will find out tomorrow what the Mortgage Lender has planned for us. If anything. The numbers are close so we may have to wait until next year and we are more closer to 100k. I'll wait a few days before setting a new Mortgage goal. Need to see if we will indeed re-fi or not. Nothing like waiting.

Other then that rainy season has started. Nothing but wet outside.

Sewing, Weekly Update, & Mortgage Challenge

Yeah, Yeah, I know I"m running late this week. Next week I plan on showing off a sewing project I got off into the mail a few days ago.

I made this little thing for Tucker. Daddy said that mommy would make him a eye glass holder for his bed. But I couldn't picture it. Well until I came across a scrap piece of fabric and some monkey flannel scraps and this was born. It will not only hold his glasses, but some small babies he has.

And then the scarecrow. Oh Lordy the scarecrow. So the boys saw this guy and they were like MOM you have to make this. Found the pattern here And so I got the pattern and started to work on it. Now I don't have much luck with patterns. Still don't know if it's me or the writer of the patterns? So got the head all sewed up and all was going well. Got the shirt at goodwill, and the pants. Oh Lordy the pants. Hit three goodwill's, no one has overalls? really? so these are a pair of hubby's old pants, with me sewing on the straps. Now the wings. Got them all cut out ok, but the patten to place these? I was banging my head against the wall, wanting to scream. It's like really you can't draw a line and put them in order? Even hubby was going, huh? But they are wings, so I placed them and sewed them to how I wanted them. So in the end it was no big deal. BUT.

So he now greets people as they enter our driveway. But since we get so little traffic here, he may be very bored?

So lots going on this week. We sat down and went over some money issues. It pains me to pay pmi on the house and we don't have to be. Rates are dropping. And do we really have to pay hazard? After the math, if pmi was dropped, we could be reducing our mortgage by at least 1,000 a month. If not more. I didn't count in a rate drop. Dropping the mortgage total by 1,000 a month would be dreamy. Since we only want to move one more time, and probably move to OR. We are pretty much here for awhile. So since we are here, lets work on paying down the house. We also made other small money goals. Like upping our emergency fund. Right now it will pay for the mortgage for 3 months. Aim to have about 6 months by the end of next year? Small steps. 

So we have an email into our Mortgage lender, he will get back to us tomorrow with numbers. If we can drop pmi and our rate, we may go forward, if not, then we won't. And dropping hazard would be a dream. So we shall see? 

Other then that, school, squash, and sewing.

ZOO, weekly update & Mortgage Challenge

So got up Monday morning, and the kids had no idea, they thought they were going to have a regular school day. I had all ready had everything packed and in the car, so they know nothing. I yelled field trip, stunned looks came over their face. Told them to be dressed and in the car in 5 minutes. And off we went. It wasn't until we pulled in (after getting turned around a few times) that they realized we were at the zoo. 

Tell ya I LOVE going when we did. Probably one of the last hottest days of the year. No school classes. No crowds. We got to spend time looking at the animals and walking around. We spent a good 3-4 hours there.

So we are now moving into fall. Rain is coming and I'm working on cleaning the outside. Still clearing beds, finding the porch, and still harvesting. Canning pumpkin daily, putting squash on the dryer daily and then turning it into flour. 

Not to mention my mountain of sewing projects. So at night I'm sewing away. Photos one day I'm sure? 

Mortgage front, down to 115,300. Can't wait to hit the 114's. We are now back on track of paying the extra money weekly. Hoping to keep that up between now and the end of the year? Took a week off so we would have money for the chicks sale. Although didn't spend it there, nope, it was spent at the zoo. But it was nice have the kids out. Need to do more outings.

Odds & Ends

What Marcie? are you blogging two days in a row? what is up with you?

First at the chicks sale found these guys. OH my boys fell in love and Mom you HAVE to make some.

After some thought, found the pattern and thought some more.

Went back this morning and took photos. And I will be buying the pattern real soon.

Brought this guy today. No idea what he is, after some googling I have a name, but I could be wrong? Anyone know? It's heirloom.

I know what this guy is.

This is the bird house I bought. Three holes on the front, one each on the sides.

And two in the back. I will be painting it soon.

Weekly Update & Mortgage Challenge

Been a quiet, but busy week. Last Sunday we went out to the back field and totally cleaned out half of the garden beds. It looks so empty out back now.

The green stuff? Oregano, I never planted it here, but yet I keep digging it up and moving it to the front and it keeps coming back. I gave up this year. Need to do a harvest of it soon and cut it back for winter. 

Empty beds. 

This is that new bed we put in. We moved the Feverfew over. So now I have lilac's and feverfew. More to come. 

This upcoming year I will be adding more herbs to the garden, I took a break this year so I could focus on what I had. Made sure they were all ok. Moved the ones that needed a bigger home. But now it's time to add a few more to the collection. 

But mostly a quiet week. Been going out nightly and cleaning one front yard bed a day. Working slowly on cleaning up the front yard. 

Today was the chicks sale and nothing to exciting. We picked up two wagon wheels I will show off later when we re-do the fence this spring. It's on the verge of falling down. Got a new bird house. It's new, so I need to paint it and de-stress it. Of course the sales are hit or miss. Some years we hit well and some we don't, and this was a don't. 

So with the money saved, we may take the kids to the zoo? We haven't been there in over two years. Might be nice to have a surprise. Of course we won't tell them. Just wake up and tell field trip, get in the car! 

Mortgage didn't drop too much this week. I didn't pay the extra 135, saving that for the chicks sale. But I did pay the monthly mortgage payment. Get back on track next week and should be able to end the year well. Mortgage is currently at 115,432.31