Cottage Countdown

Pleased with my OP today. 318.60 to the mortgage. Balance is now 48,181.40 payment 143/360. We are 8 years and 6 months ahead of where we should be and inching closer and cloaer to payment 165 which is when the principal starts being more than interest. And right on time too as I just received a letter from the bank saying I will have an escrow shortage and need to pay that in full. And even with paying it in full, my mortgage payment is going up 12.00 :mad:. I know its not a lot, but its so annoying when I' m focusing on paying off the house early.

I am appreciating the 3 paycheck month. Emergency fund, house fund, and long term savings were all added to. Paid off my trip today, but I have done some recent spring clothes shopping. Work van repair came under budget which was nice. And retirement contributions for last month were made today, a little late but better than never. Possible new clients are around the corner so looking forward to summer and seeing what this year holds.

Mortgage payment sent. We are now officially in the 47K bracket with a balance of $47,843.00. Amortization schedule shows us at payment 145 dated 12/27. We should be only at payment 42 with a balance still over $60,000, so we are super motivated being this far ahead. Depending how this month goes, it would be nice to be at $47,000 even when the month ends, but I won't be too disappointed if we're not. I will have to try to budget the groceries for the next two weeks as best I can for any extra wiggle room but even if it's tighter, the house fund received an extra $100.00, the emergency fund $16.00 and the big savings $34.00 plus almost $20.00 in interest on the 11th. All in all I hope to have at least $50.00 left in checking before we get paid again on the 16th.
We are waiting on a check from a client so I can make April's contribution to our retirement accounts and pay back our investment/flip fund. We hope to buy some investment property through our business soon, restore it and sell it. That's been a dream for a long time, and it looks like it's finally on the horizon.
I will still need to apply for the line of credit for some house projects. I do love owning rather than renting, but sometimes it just drives you crazy on the stuff you have to spend for things that no one ever sees or notices. I know so many of you here can commiserate. Let's say $3000.00 for the swale, possibly $6000.00 to remove two trees, $2500-$4000 for a new roof, around $700 to reinsulate the attic to help with the hot southeast summers here in the US. Whenever they talk of home improvement on the commercials, it's always nice landscaping, a nice deck, furniture, light fixtures, cute stuff that everyone can see. The reality is so different, lol.:p Oh well, I don't have to do everything at once so we will just concentrate on one project at a time. And after the swale is done, I'll treat us to some nice outdoor furniture

jodles16 wrote: »

Hooray to getting into the 47's! Always exciting!


You are spot on, it is so frustrating all the costs that add up when you own a home, and not even on the good, fun stuff that you can see and use!


Jodles

So true Jodles. I'm now looking at pictures on how to decorate a swale/dry creek bed with attractive landscaping. Because my God, if I'm going to pay all this money for this kind of stuff, it's going to look cute :rotfl:

Small OP today of $41.75 brings the balance to $47,800.00. I have so many expenses coming up this month that I have to be content with this. We got a second quote from a landscaper regarding the French drains/swale for the backyard. He should give us a price this week, but I'm not expecting it to be lower than what we received from the first guy. We did get approved for the line of credit though for home improvements, so that will be nice to just write a check for the full amount and then hopefully pay that back as quickly as possible. This allows me not to touch my savings and keep letting that grow. It's purely psychological I know, but I absolutely hate draining my savings and then having to slog to pay it back. I'd much rather cash flow the repairs/house projects and let my savings keep growing. Next week when we get paid, I have to pay $275.00 into the mortgage escrow account because of a shortage :mad: Not happy about that at all. Mortgage payment will now rise to $502.00 so future first of the month OPs will be $98.00 instead of the $110.00 I had been making all this time. Annoying, but the good news is we are so close to the point where the principal will start outpacing the interest, so I can't wait to see how that affects our momentum.
I have been procrastinating getting an oil change on my vehicle for 3 months and hubby's getting annoyed, so I must get that done next week as well. Although since he's the one so annoyed about it, he can take the truck to get it done for me
I found a great recipe roundup for some Whole 30 meals, so I will try some of them in next week's dinner rotations. So far what's sounding good is avocado lime tuna salad, bbq chicken casserole and egg roll in a bowl with homemade sweet and sour. Should be interesting.
Nothing but rain to look forward to this weekend so will need to find a home project for my husband before he drives me batty. He gets stir crazy very easily. I can exist between my house and garden very nicely and do everything to survive online. He can't so I better find something for him to do quickly

Today's OP was 81.40 to bring the balance to $47,400.00. I would have liked to be in the 46k bracket by the end of this month, but it doesn't look like we'll quite make it. It has been very spendy, so it's better to do the best I can on the mortgage but concentrate on paying off the dishwasher and my car registration, both put on my credit card. Hopefully, that balance will be finished no later than next month and we can get back to our plans of putting a front picket fence and getting the landscaping done to stop the water from entering the crawlspace.
It is and will be hot, hot, hot for the foreseeable future which hasn't motivated me to do any side work. My usual work is always done by Wednesday and I'm free to do side work all the other times, but I've been so unmotivated with the beautiful weather and cleaning up my front and backyards. Now with this heat, I guess I'll have no choice but to stay inside so might as well get some work done . I do transcription on the side, just to keep my skills fresh as I can't do it full time anymore because of lovely repetitive motion syndrome. But I'm grateful that I get to work from home all the time anyway, so I won't complain on that front. OH had two service calls, both local today, which we were thrilled. One was literally two blocks away, he could walk and the other only a 10-minute drive. I made the deposits for our retirement accounts today so I'm all caught up with finances from work.
The last meals I made from a recipe roundup of Whole 30 meals have been great. I made zucchini chicken pasta with avocado scallion sauce last night. I had my doubts since my husband doesn't care for green onions. He said Wow on the first bite and kept eating it out of the skillet :T. And my paleo chocolate pie came out great although the crust was very crumbly. Still good though. We have leftover bbq chicken casserole so I don't have to cook today or tomorrow, which will be nice. And this weekend we will probably grill some drumsticks and have some nice cool drinks. Might as well get outside even if it is blazing hot. Monday's a holiday too, so definitely will be grilling on that day. I love it since hubby does all the grilling, I feel like I get a break from the kitchen :A
Time to get back to my budget sheets and make sure I haven't forgotten anything. Enjoy your weekends all.