Time for a Mortgage Payoff Update!
In May we sent in our first mortgage payment. We were able
to bump that payment up to $4,225.30 due to some unexpected Blessing Money that
month. (Yes, all of our income is "blessing money," that's just how we refer to the extra, unexpected cash that shows up). Some of it came from the washer and dryer money the seller gave us at
closing. $1000 of it came from our rental deposit that we received that month. Some
of it was money we’d saved by bargaining for a used lawn mower off of
Craigslist. And $500 of it came out of nowhere when the State of Wisconsin
randomly decided to give everyone a $100 tax rebate PER CHILD! Sometimes life
is random and you get to reap the blessings. That first payment shortened our mortgage by 21 months and saved us $10,109.36 in interest!
In June we didn’t have any unexpected money to add to the
loan. We wrote our second principle check for $1358.07 – our usual payment of
$649.36 plus the $708.71 we’ve budgeted to pay toward the house every month (a
somewhat random number we came up with and forced our budget to accept, ha).
This second payment reduced our interest by $1,866.83 and shortened our loan by
4 months. Yay!
This month will be the first check to go in as a minimum
payment. We decided to use the extra money we would normally put toward the
loan to enjoy a three day getaway to celebrate our 7th anniversary instead.
It was WELL worth it! This was our first time to go anywhere overnight without
any of the children (except for the wee one we’re expecting in February!), and
really our first time to do much of anything to celebrate our anniversary.
My mom and sister came up to watch the Five Little Monkeys,
and they all did great! Joshua and I stayed at a Bed and Breakfast, went
kayaking, enjoyed a little hiking, ate great food, listened to the orchestra in
the park, and tried our hand at painting for the first time. We went to one of
those “paint your own canvas” places where you try to copy what a real artist
has painted, with a tiny bit of instruction from the staff. We did a canvas of
the Stillwater Bridge together. It was hilarious, as neither of us has ever
painted before, and we were both trying to tell the other how it’s done. The
end result won’t make is famous, but it is a fun memento of an awesome trip! We’re
going to have to make child-free vacations more of a habit, now that I know my
babies can survive without me for a few days ;)
While we don’t have any extra money going toward the loan
this month, we do have a “Buy Smart” win to report. Early mortgage payoff
doesn’t always mean paying extra on the loan. Sometimes it just means staying
out of other debt so that you’re free to pay on the loan with any Blessing Money
you have in the future.
We knew when we bought the house that it needed a new roof.
We decided we wanted metal roofing because, while it costs about twice the
price of shingles, it can last up to three times as long. Since we plan on
being here a long time, we decided it was worth the extra money to (hopefully)
not have to replace our roof again for at least 30 years.
We got two estimates on the roof in May. Both came out to
roughly $10,500 for a new metal roof over a single layer of existing shingles.
Ouch! It so happened that Joshua’s parents were visiting at the time. Joshua’s
dad can do pretty well any project he sets out to accomplish, so when he
suggested that he could get us started doing the roof ourselves for half the
price, we took him up on the offer. Our roof is very basic, with only one gable.
It doesn’t have a very steep grade, and didn’t need the shingles removed before
installing the metal, so we were fairly confident in their ability to get the
job done. As long as David could get Joshua passed the gable before he had to
head home, Joshua could figure out how to finish the rest.
Odds seemed stacked against them (lots of rain, errors in
orders, and an unexpected hospital stay delayed things considerably), but with
lots of help from several friends they got ALMOST to the point they wanted to
be at before David left. Thankfully, Joshua has inherited quite a bit of his
dad’s “can do anything” spirit, and he’s been able to figure things out as he
goes along. It’s not quite finished, but one more full day of work should have
it completed. And don’t you love that shiny blue?!
A huge thank-you to David and the many dear friends who have
loaned us tools, advice, and free labor. We definitely could not have done this
without you! It’s been a great learning experience and, all in all, has gone
pretty smoothly. I even got up there a couple times and did some work (I slowed
the process more than helped but hey, it was fun). And only one person has
fallen off the roof so far. Turns out you really shouldn't work on top of a metal roof in the rain.... Go figure... (Don’t worry, David is just a little sore. Still
wish I’d gotten his impressive landing on video ;)).
Estimate for a new
metal roof: $10,476
Total cost of our DIY
metal roof: $4,817 (this included the cost of several basic tools like a
second drill and a ladder)
Paying the difference into the loan wasn’t possible this
time, but we sure are thankful for the savings!
Payment Summary:
First Principle Payment: $4,225.30
Interest Saved: $10,109.36
Loan Shortened By: 21 Months!
Second Principle Payment: $1358.07
Interest Saved: $1866.83
Loan Shortened By: 4 Months
Third Principle Payment: $649.36
Interest Saved: $0
Loan Shortened By: 0 Months
-193738.jpeg)