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Thursday, March 19, 2009

Progress Report #1

Well here is the first months progress report!

Mortgage Amount Now Owing: $151,178
Extra amount paid last month was: $1046
This saved $7,384 in interest and 7 months off the loan term!
We paid .8% of the original mortgage total ($152,377)

Because the mortgage is only 2.5 years old (due to a consolidation) extra amounts paid off have a bigger impact on the principal amount. So now is the time for us to make the big savings in interest.

I am really happy with that! Without my decision to 'Just Do It' and my blog, no extra money would have been paid and I would have wasted another couple of hundred dollars on internet marketing junk. I would have just spent the $600 bonus on... ???? who knows what?

These are the changes we made in the last 3 weeks:
  • No take away
  • No munchies junk food from the corner shop
  • I stopped eating junk food in the car on the way to & from work
  • Taking a packed lunch to work instead of buying it
  • No hiring videos
  • Halved the food budget from $250 a week to $125
  • No impluse purchases of (even more) clothes, shoes or 'stuff'
  • On the last day of the month I left $50 in the account and paid everything else off the mortage ($110)

In all honesty we just stopped being so wasteful. Food was our biggest area of saving.

Other amount owing: Credit card $12,794, Interest Free Card: $1,389

After a big day on the budget yesterday it is all drawn up and ready to go! I know exactly what I pay for everything, when it is due and how much I need to set aside every week to pay all our bills. I used the Simple Savings Bill Payment System which is free (see the left sidebar). I like having it all in a folder where I can find it. It's easy to follow, logical.

Calculating how much interest I am saving and the time off the loan helps me see that this is worthwhile. Sometimes if I get a bit down I jump online, crunch some numbers and remind myself that in 5 years time I will have no mortgage. I have added the calulators that I use to the links on the right side.

Well I'm off to move that little red bar on the right .8% !!!!

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JOURNEY TO ELIMINATE DEBT