Trying hard not to be a slave to the lenders.

I am constantly rethinking financial strategies hoping to be totally debt free (house and all) by 1/1/18 (6 years from now). Including the house mortgage and two car loans, we have a total of $237K in debt. We are already on our way to paying off our home by applying a total of $30K or more to the principal of the house. We owe 2.5 years on my husband truck loan and mine is only 6 months into a 5 year car loan. My plan is to pay extra on the car loan and pay it off also in 2.5 years (both car on the month and year). Then, I will apply the car and truck payment amounts to the mortgage to shorten the mortgage even more. What do you think?

It snowed for pretty much of the morning here. This is the first winter storm this year. I cleaned and cleaned, did laundry and made these fabulous pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. I tried my newly acquired hand mixer today with this recipe. I got it completely free using Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks. I paid close to $70 for it and I'm very please by its look and performance. I had a very inexpensive hand mixer that I kept burning the motor on it. I bake way too much so I thought this is a great addition to my kitchen gadgets.

Financially speaking we have two big bills due February 1st and that is property taxes on both homes. Those bills will put a damper on my mortgage pay down extravaganza. Nothing I can do about it; New Jersey property taxes are pretty crazy.

So here are pictures of my new gadget and my pumpkin chocolate chip muffins:

Hi guys! I just want to give you a little update on our progress so far on paying down our mortgage. Since December 27th, we've paid $4,570.79 extra to the principal. We're down to $206,630.64 from the original loan amount of $243,500. As of today, we are ahead of schedule 21 months. We're a little aggressive now because we may have to slow down quite a bit starting September. DS# 2 will be entering a technical program which is quite expensive and we are definitely covering the cost.

I have a plan for this pay period but I'm keeping my fingers crossed because I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it (you know Murphy has a strange way to show up when you least expected).

$1,000.00 to automatic saving
$1,771.00 to March mortgage payment
$ 450.00 to vacation fund
$ 550.00 to extra mortgage principal
$ 395.00 to truck loan
$ 400.00 to car loan =
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$4,566.00

Pay checks= $3,900 + $666.00 ( we have about $900 surplus in the checking account) or maybe less depending how much my husband makes on his overtime check). This plan will have me spread very thin until the end of the month, but I'm going to try my hardest to do it without having to tap into savings. Next month property taxes are due and the downstairs tenant will not be able to pay rent until probably March when he starts working again. He is a good tenant and has been with us for about 11 years; we are willing to this for him. We have a nice stock pile in the freezer and canned goods so food purchase will be limited to dairy, fruits and veggies.

I will definitely let you know if we were able to do it. Meanwhile, may your weekend be frugal and pleasant!

PS. Last night my son won his Wrestling match 3-1 with an opponent outside of my son's weight class, which was advantageous for his opponent and it was Senior night! What a great night for him and a proud moment for us.

I will keep 2012 down to three main goals because all three are pretty ambitious. I (we)managed to pay about $31,900.00 towards the principal of the mortgage in 2011. I'll have to wait a few more days for the exact amount. As you can see, I still have paying down the mortgage as a goal for 2012. DS#2 is going to tech school next year and we are hoping to pay for that cash and I seriously want to reduce the truck loan one year. As of August of 2012 we will owe two years on this loan. My wish is to have minimum consumer debt (car loans) by the summer of 2013. I managed to accomplish 6 out of the 14 2011 personal and financial goals. I wish I could have done better!

I can't wait to read about your 2012 goals!

In a casual conversation, a relative and I were talking about mortgages. She mentioned that she paid her mortgage payment yesterda (payment was due December 1st). She casually mentioned that she could not pay on time because she needed the money to go Christmas shopping. I know that gift giving is very nice, but people have to be honest with their family members and make it clear that there is just no money for gifts this year. I can see her buying gifts for her children, but extravagant gift giving to relatives is wrong given the financial situation of this family. Would you have done the same if you were in the same situation? Christmas has lost its meaning in my opinion.

I just go my first free ebook for my NOOK using the giftcards I earned through Swagbucks. I got the last book from the Millenium Trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson. I love these books and I will be heading out to the movie theater during Christmas break to watch the American version of the trilogy, The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo.

Yes, today I set up the payment to meet the $30K mortgage principal pay down of 2011!! We are officially down from $243,500 to $213,500 in one year. The principal amount is where it should be in April of 2013. Woo Hoo! I still want to cash in our coin jar, which I'll do next Monday. I'm super excited!
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My DS#1 spring college tuition is paid ($5323.00)and I just have to order D#2 yearbook. The school offers a discount of $15 when students preorder the yearbook. He is a senior and this is the only yearbook I purchased throughout the years.

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My husband and I bought and Iphone 4S for DS#1 for Christmas along with a few other things. DS#2 we'll get cash equal to the same amount of money we spent on his brother. My husband and I do not exchange gifts. We've done this for the 21 years we've been married.

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Christmas break starts Friday and I'll be off until January 2nd. Enjoy the rest of the week.

I'm not going to lie, I love eating out, but I limit it to maybe once a week. Eating out is super expensive, although we usually choose to enjoy a good meal at our local pizzeria. We get the most bang for our money and we save on the tip. Lately, I've been calculating how much each dinner meals costs us and I was especially amazed today. I made a large lasagna today (meat,cheddar/mozzarella and ricotta cheese) and the cost was about $9. What's even more amazing is that we still have half of the lasagna leftover for another day. Needless to say, the real cost of today's dinner was about $5. The lasagna was delicious, made with love and care and inexpensive.

P.S. I was happy to use my Christmas dinnerware for the first time today!

We managed to cut down the electric bill from $55.57 to $35.67 last month (billing cycle from Nov. 2nd to the 30th). I think that we managed to keep it low because we do not use our dryer unless we really have to. Any surplus in the budget allotted for bills will automatically go to paying down the mortgage principal. I rounded the amount off to $20. Woo Hoo!

I'm taking advantage of all the gift cards deals out there. I ordered a $25 gift card from Barnes and noble for $15 and also bought vouchers for 5 Big Macs and 5 large fries for $13. I realized that it is not healthy meals but the boys will buy them anyway so why not save some money. I have accumulated a lot of swagbucks. I'm holding out for a deal on B&N gift cards.

Lately, I've been trying to keep on track with things that need to be done during the week. At the beginning of each week, I make a list of things I would like to accomplish. The weekly list seems to help me get everything done. This weeks's list looks like this:

Send 5 Christmas cards each day.
Earn 100 Swagbucks
Read 150 pages of my e-book
Search for deals on the internet
Drink 6-8 glasses of water
Pray for family and friends

Going out to buy some Christmas crafts and baking ingredients. I hope you have a good weekend.

I had a blast in New York City on Friday. We caught the 7:32 a.m. train and arrived at Penn Station @8:52. We then took a taxi to Radio City Music Hall because we were travelling with a 4 year old and a 9 year old. Weather was absolutely divine and the Christmas Spectacular was awesome. After the show we grabbed something to eat and then headed to the M&M World store to treat the girls. We decided to walk back to Penn Station since the weather was lovely. All in all, it was a spendy day but worth every penny spent. Next trip to the city will be when the Broadway show EVITA starts in the spring.

My hubby started decorating the outside of the house for Christmas on Friday and finished it today. I removed all of my indoor fall decorations and began decorating for Christmas. I'm not sure when I'll put up the Christmas tree; maybe next weekend. Honestly, I cannot have the tree up for too long because I get tired of looking at it.

Back to work on Monday. I wish I had a few more days off. Have a great Sunday and a fruitful work week!

Firstable, Happy Thanksgiving to all of my SA friends. I feel blessed to be part of this forum!

Don't forget to get your Walgreens photo collage at Walgreens.com for free until tomorrow. Choose to pick up at your nearest store and it will be completely free because you won't be paying shipping charges. Use the code RGIFT2U at checkout. We are off to my MIL's house in the afternoon. I'm making chocolate chip cookies, Reese's Chewy Chocolate cookies and a pumpkin pie. Tomorrow I'll be heading off to New York City to see the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. I'm so excited!

As some of you may already know, I received a Barnes and Nobles NOOK (an e-reader) for my birthday in August. I can honestly say that this is the best present ever. I have downloaded about four books since I got it, but I decided that I would find another way to purchase these electronic books. I've been winning digital money through swagbucks for quite sometime now. I can get a $5 Barnes and Noble gift cards each time I earn 625 swagbucks. I wish they were easier to earn, like the Amazon gift card (only 450 swagbucks). There is a book I have in my wishlist and pretty much would like it to be the next book I read. I decided that I would buy it only if I have enough swagbucks to cover the entire amount. I am currently raking swagbucks by using their Swagbucks TV feature, which for a limited time, you can earn up to 150 swagbucks a day. I've already have enough for a $5 B&N gift cards and pretty close to earning a second one. I can't wait!

The total mortgage principal payment for this year is:$24,261.40. I don't think I'll be making any more extra payments this year because I have other financial obligations that need to be covered. All in all, I'm proud of myself. This amount represents a shorter mortgage life of one year.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!

A representative from a very reputable automotive school in PA came to talk to us about their school. We requested the visit because after an extensive research. We thought that this school will be the best fit for our DS#2. He will graduate from high school in June of 2012. It is clear that he has no intention of persuing a traditional post high school education and I feel that my job as a parent is to guide him and let him decide what he wants to do. After the presentation, of course, the representative gave us the rundown of how much the program will cost. Worst case scenario, tuition will cost close to $30K, not including room and board. Most of these programs cost that much money. We decided that we would go forward with the application process. As some of you know, we paid for DS#1 college tuition, which we estimated to cost close to $45K because my son never inccured room and board expenses. We intend to pay for DS#2 tuition also. Here is my question, Do we get student loans to cover the cost of this program or should we pay for it in full with the money we have in savings (tuition only)? We would pay for his living expenses on a month to month basis. With DS#1, tuition was paid every five months for 4 years. We do not have the same option with DS#2 since this program is only for 12 months. DS#2 is planning on getting a part-time job with the help of the job placement department at school. Assuming that by September of 2012 we have $90K in savings, that would leave us with $60K. Enough to cover about 10 months of a bare bones budget. Any advice you can offer is greatly appreciated.

Ever since the boys were little, most of my purchases were related to them. I would make an occasional purchase for me of a sweater or pants once in a while, aside from the major purchases made at the beginning of September for work clothes. This week I bought the Pampered Chef items (which everyone will benefit from), I bought two tickets to see the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall in New York City (half price using a Groupon code)and last night I ordered a pair of Ugg Tasman slippers I wanted. I have a black pair, but they are starting to look a bit shabby. I intend to pay for the tickets and kitchen items with the $300 cashback from Chase. Those two items were $305, so only $5 out of pocket. The slippers were purchased with Amazon gift cards earned with swagbucks and Chase Amazon credit card. Cost=$90 free shipping. I still have a credit of $180.95 \0/. I was thinking of getting a North Face fleece jacket but I think I'm getting it for Christmas.

I have one more college semester to pay for DS#1. Technically, he has another semester in the fall of 2012 but he said that he would pay for that one himself since we will begin paying for DS#2 technical school in the fall of 2012. I was so proud of him when he said, "Mom, I'm grateful that you have paid for 4 years worth of tuition for me, I'll use my summer work money to pay for the last college semester".

Mortgage update: I added another $65 to principal this week. Total principal paid this year is: $23,030 and I still have until December to try to meet the "super ambitious goal of 2011" (see sidebar)

Book review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson is simply awesome. I already downloaded the second book of his Millenium Trilogy.

Hope you have a great end to the week.

I went to a Pampered Chef party last night and spend $165.00. I bought a Mandolin, stoneware pizza pan, cookie cooling rack, salsa serving bowls and a chopper. I don't feel guilty about the purchase because I know I'll use these items often. I tend to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, besides I used my newly acquired Chase freedom card which will give me $300 cash back with my first purchase. I'll have enough to cover the Christmas Spectacular (Rockettes)tickets in New York City and the Pamper Chef purchase.

Just wrote 2 checks for quarterly property taxes totaling close to $3,000. We are heavily taxed in New Jersey. In the kitchen front, I made pizza dough, cookies and buffalo chicken yesterday. Today, I'll make 15 bean soup to eat and some to store in the freezer.

This is the update for this week. I hope you all have a great week!

Once again, I was greatful to have money to weather difficult times. Saturday's snow storm left our town looking like a war zone. Trees uprooted from the ground, wires on the ground and an entire town completely in the dark. We were without power, which means no heat for almost three days. Our neighborhood was lucky enough to be one of the first ones to get power, due to the close proximity to the public schools. We were able to save the perishables with the exception of a few items. We showered at a friend's house, ate out a lot and burned wood in the fire place 'till late at night to keep warm for a while. Nights were brutal and waking up in the morning worst. Many of my coworkers still have no power. Quite honestly I was getting depressed. Can't stop mother nature, though.

I hope the rest of you are warm and safe!

It's snowing in northern New Jersey; too soon for my liking. Oh well, nothing I can do about it.

I made pumpkin pancakes this morning for breakfast. I had some leftover pumpkin puree in the fridge I did not want to go to waste. There were so yummy. Make sure to look at people's comments for ideas to take them better. I just left the vinegar sit in the milk for 5 minutes like one person suggested.Here is the link for the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pumpkin-pancakes/detail.aspx

We are officially one year ahead on our mortgage principal. By mid November, we'll owe 13 years on our mortgage instead of 14. We've paid $22,954.27 to the principal of this house this year. I'll make the last mortgage payment of the year November 15th. Let's see how close we get to our $30K principal goal.

I'd been using coupons when I go grocery shopping. Last week, I saved a little over $21. I managed to score a few items (a gallon of milk, a razor and a bottle of Mr. Clean).

No plans for this weekend. Next weekend I'm going to a Pampered Chef Party at a friend's house. Should be fun. I'm also going to see the Christmas Spectacular and the Rockettes in New York City this holiday season. One of the things in my bucket list. I plan to pay for this using the $300 cash back from the newly acquired Chase Freedom credit card. I'm going with my little niece, my dear friend and her daughter and my friends mom.

On November 3rd, I also scheduled some money to transfer to savings/Italy trip and Roth IRA. I plan to fun the Roth IRA completely prior to April 15th, even if it means tapping into my savings to do so. My sent my sister $100 to help out with my mom's expenses. Here's some pics of free items and pumpkin pancakes.









I hope you all have a great weekend.

P.S. I succumbed to the cold and 2 days ago we turned on the heat. We paid $1200 to fill the heating oil tank completely. I could've been more but we still had 175 gallons left from last season.

is the amount that would get us to be one whole year ahead of schedule on our mortgage amortization table. By January 1st we will have 13 years left on our mortgage instead of 14 on our 15 year mortgage. I'm super excited about this. Although I will not meet my super ambitious $30k principal goal, I still think that we did well considering we are paying for our son's college tuition cash every semester.

Christmas shopping:

My goal for this pay period is to buy 2 Christmas presents. I'm buying one of those presents using the money I've earned through swagbucks and amazon cc rewards.

Cable, land line and internet (bundle):

Hubby called our provider to tell them that we were looking into switching companies if we did not get a better deal. Customer service lowered our bill from $148 to $115 a month for a year.

Our son:

My DS #2 has been doing some odd jobs for our neighbor to fuel his car when necessary. The other day, I guess he found himself with quite a bit of cash in his wallet. On Tuesday, he left me $40 on the counter and asked me if I could deposit the money in his savings account. I must say that this was a very proud moment for me. All the pep talks about saving money for a rainy day is paying off. He's also alternating weeks with a friend to make the trip to the gym. They both felt that it was a waste of gas to take two cars.

Very busy weekend coming up. I hope you have an enjoyable weekend.

Today I resolved to enjoy the beautiful, sunny fall day we were blessed with. I cleaned the house, went for a walk, cooked, baked and now I'm posting. I'm reading The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo. I downloaded the book to my newly acquired NOOK. I read The Last Lecture and beside sobbing through many of the pages; it gave me a new lease on life. It was very touching!

Financially, things are just moving along. Still trying to make the best use out of our income and frankly I feel so very blessed and satisfied with my life. Five hundred dollars went to paying extra principal on the mortgage.

Today's cooking yielded: 4 containers of spaghetti sauce and a cookie jar full of double peanut butter cookies. I'm thrilled with the sauce and my kids with the cookies.



I hope you all have a happy Sunday and for those of you off for Columbus Day, enjoy your extra day off. ((HUGS))

I'm always looking for ways to motivate myself to save money. Last week, I decided that I (we) are going to put .25 of every $1.00 we make to savings each pay period. I put away a great amount of money away since we should be collecting rents sometime this coming week. I also put money aside on my "Italy" (2013 trip to Italy) ING account and $400 to my Roth IRA. I also transferred $50 to a separate account to send to my Mom when I see that she is short on funds. I will try to transfer the $50 every pay period to my "Mom Fund". I'm now paying my mortgage the 15th of the month, two weeks before its due day. My Amazon gift cards credits will increase to 311.92 withing the next two weeks. I just earned $5 gift card from Swagbucks and $25 from Chase's Amazon reward credit card.

Have a great Sunday and work week!

So I paid our October mortgage on September 16th just because we had an unexpected windfall of $800 and because honestly I'm addicted to seeing the mortgage principal go down. This month alone, I(we) have paid $1,525.08 and trimmed $20,579.00 from the principal as of today. I don't think I'll meet my super ambitious goal of paying $30K to the principal this year. I am completely okay with it because I know that realisticly it is financially impossible with all of the other obligations we have.

On another note I opened a few ING Direct accounts. One is for my possible trip to Italy in 2013, one for Home Repairs and another one for Savings. I read a post of someone commenting on a CNNMONEY.com article that gave me a great idea. He suggested that people should attempt to save 25% of net pay or .25 of every $1 they make. Psychologically the latter sounds more appealing to me, although I understand that it means the same thing.

I hope you are all having a great week!

I'd been at work for the past two days but I officially begin the 2011-2012 school year tomorrow. I'm hopeful that it'll be a good year. I cancelled my deductions at work on my 403B, because I really want to fully fund my Roth IRA first. As the cash flow eases up a bit after DS#1 finishes college, I will resume contributing to my 403B. I also changed my W-4 deductions at work. I much rather have the money every pay period.
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DS#2, a senior in high school, informed me that he will try community college next year and if he does not feel like it's what he wants to do, he'll enroll in an auto tech school. I think his plan is totally reasonable and I'm especially happy that he can remain in my health insurance until he is 26 years old.

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We put a claim on our flood insurance for the rental house. I'm pretty sure we'll have to replace the furnace and the hot water heater. New Jersey was incredibly affected by Irene. I will definitely let you know the outcome. This is for today; I hope you are having a great work week.

Had to transfer a pile of money from our savings to the checking account. Everything seemed to be due September 1st and the last two weeks of August and first two weeks of September are always very challenging for us.

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Everyone in our house should be on a routine this coming week. My husband and I start working and the kids are back to school. We are closing the pool this weekend because quite frankly no one is using it. The water is way too cold and the leaves are all making a mess out of it.

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I closed a bank account and cashed some coins for a total of $54.53 and transfered the money towards the principal of the mortgage. I love my NOOK! I read Heaven is for Real and I'm now reading "Dogwood".

Well this is it for today; I hope you all have a great Labor Day weekend.

I closed my August budget today, even though there is one more day left in August. I jotted down every single penny we spent this month. I calculated what we saved using coupons and discounts and I was able to make another principal payment of $50 today. Total principal reduction to date is $19,153.05. This month's extra principal reduction was $602.67. We are $10,846.95 short of our $30K goal by December 31st. If we are able to pay $30K for the next seven years (not including 2011), we will pay this mortgage off in seven years. I have faith that we will.

Irene did a number on our rental property. We will have to call our flood insurance provider (FEMA) to put a claim. Hot water heater, furnace, tenant's washer and other things were damaged. I'm glad no one was hurt though. There are lots of trees down, flooded streets and power lines down on my neck of the woods.

I spent a little bit of time in the kitchen today making breakfast burritos and egg, cheese and bacon English muffins to freeze. I came across the idea of the latter at moneysavingmom.com website. I think that if I make these from time to time it'll help avoid temptation to swing by McDonalds to grab something quick to eat. I can just grab one and heat it up at work. I made 14 breakfast burritos and 11 muffin sandwiches.

This is actually one egg split in half to cover the whole muffin.









I used the same bag the English muffins came in to freeze them.

Thank God I have you to share the things some people may consider a bit ridiculous. My hubby found $7.35 yesterday and gave to me to do whatever I wanted with it. I decided to put it towards the mortgage principal. I realize that the amount is minimal, but I'm thinking long term and in the long run whatever amount it is will get me a step closer to paying the mortgage off.

Today is my 42nd birthday! My husband and sons surprised me yesterday with a NOOK and needless to say, I am really excited about it.

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I finished reading the book "The Help" and my plans are to head to the movie theater tomorrow and watch the movie. I loved the book so I hope it is as moving. On another note, we finally hit the over $19K mark paying down our mortgage principal. I hope we can keep this up, but if for any reason we can't that will be just fine too.

I hope you all have a great work week; I'll be back to work soon myself.

I received an email last night with the new salary guides for the next school year. I was excited to see that I'll have an increase of a little over $6k this year. This is a new contract. We took a salary freeze last year to save jobs, which means that each one of us also lost one step in the salary guide. I'm not complaining, I feel blessed to have a job in this economy.