Hoping to Save $100K+ On My Mortgage

"Bargain Hunting", saving money, and being cheap go far beyond the grocery/retail stores & coupons.  Today, I'm going to touch base a little on how an average person can save a ton of money if they pre-pay their mortgage just slightly every month.

I won't go into many details about my personal mortgage - I think the general consensus in the country (world?) is it's tacky to do so.  I personally don't have many issues with it though.  If a friend or neighbor wanted to talk actual figures about personal finance - I would be happy to divulge the information.  I think we live in a world where nothing is "normal" and I think people assume things about how much things costs, how much people get paid, how much people pay for certain items just because in most of these cases, the only example we have is what we pay/get paid for things.  I have no shame in admitting we're pretty poor! 

Many moons ago, the husband and I bought a house.  Well, it was just shy of 3 1/2 years ago - not that many moons.  We'll probably never move again - mostly due to the fact that it would be nearly impossible to pack up all our crap.  We're also very comfortable.  Anyways, when we first got our initial mortgage, I was ecstatic at the rate.  With our old loan, and just the "minimum" payments made every month, we would have paid $225,907 over the course of 30 years on interest.  YOWZERS!  At that time, our payment was $8 shy of a "solid figure" (meaning, ending in 00).  So every month, I thought I was big and bad and would pay $8 extra dollars to our mortgage. 

I never really thought about refinancing.  I was happy where we were at.  However, thanks to Facebook, I'm friends with a guy I went to high school with - who is a gung ho mortgage lender.  He posts rates and whatnot from time to time when they are good.  So one morning, he posted a rate that his office was giving out to some people.  With some quick math and a handy dandy online mortgage calculator - I realized I would be a fool not to refinance.

Refinancing sucked.  It took over 60 days.  I had to find paperwork I wasn't even sure I had (I'm not very organized).  I even had to write letters explaining why other lenders checked my credit report recently (I shopped around - if I was going to drop a few thousand on fees and whatnot to refinance, I wanted the best rate with the best people).  It was much different than our experience of buying a house back in 2003 - when we were able to close in only 6 days with no money down at all - you know, the glory days when they threw out mortgages to anyone like candy in a parade. 

Well it finally happened.  We closed back in December.  With the new mortgage, we shaved $179 off our minimum monthly payment and if we only pay that payment - we will only pay $154,905 over the course of 30 years in interest.  Essentially (not completely, because we did have 3 years of payments at the higher rate), a savings of  $71,002 in interest over the course of 30 years.  Since times are fine, financially speaking, I've actually just been paying our old payment to our new loan.  An overpayment of $187 a month.  If I can continue this, we will only pay $109,617 in interest on the loan.  Essentially, a savings of $116,290 from only paying the minimum payment on our initial loan - and a savings of over $45,000 on my current loan of just paying the minimum payment.  An added bonus, with just $187 more a month, our 30 year mortgage will be paid off in 22 years, 2 months.  Also - if times do get tough - I do know that I can find an "extra" $187 by lowering our mortgage payment down to the minimum payment. 

Obviously there are many things in life to save for - education, retirement, emergencies, vacations.  Sometimes, you just have to weigh your choices and figure out what is important to you.  I'm not a complete fool - I know a lot of people would have a hard time to just pony up an extra $187 a month to their mortgage.  Heck - I know there are people who don't even have any extra money for any type of savings.  But, if you are ever in a position like me - where you are used to paying a certain amount and get to refinance - consider keeping up the old payment.  Especially if you pretty certain you are going to be at your home for a long time.  Or - if you want to knock some time off your mortgage - just round up to the "solid figure."  Every mortgage and rate is different - so if you want to check how extra payments will effect your personal situation, click THIS CALUCLATOR FROM BANK RATE to input your own information.  Lastly, there is NOTHING wrong with just paying your minimum monthly payment.  Tons of people do it.  You don't need to bend over backwards to try to pre-pay your mortgage.  It's just a quirk I have and passing along the information in case anyone is interested. 

Want to know how you compare to other homeowners?  Did you know the average US mortgage is $1295. The average MA homeowner's mortgage payment is $1781.  The average Alabama homeowner's mortgage payment is only $913.  I have zero idea if these figures include taxes & insurance (I would not make a good research assistant)  - but you can see - there is a lot of disparity about what is "normal".  Same would hold true if I threw up figures from the average mortgage payment in Newton, MA vs. Lowell, MA.  I'm sure they are VERY different.  

BJ's Trip - Spent $129, Used $51 in Coupons

So I went to BJ's.  I like going at the end of the month.  Why?  Usually, the next month's coupon book comes in the mail around the 25th and the old coupon book is still valid.  This is a good time too - because there is a BJ's journal out there with coupons. 

Before coupons, my total was $181.60.  With coupons, it came down to $129.  One of my coupons was save $10 off a $100 purchase or more with your Mastercard.  Those are always nice.  I buy a lot of produce at BJ's - and honestly - I don't know what my problem is, but I spent almost $40 on cheese there today.  Good thing I'm not lactose intolerant. 

Here's some of my good deals though (or so I think):

Kraft Deal from BJ's Journal. 

Coupon:  Buy 4 items, Save $8.00 (essentially, $2 off per item)

Cracker Barrel Cheese - $11.99, BJ's coupon for $2 off, MFC for $1/2 (4 packs - so it worked).  Like paying $6.99 for 4 packs

Oreos (equivelent to 2 1/2 packages) - $5.99, BJ's coupon for $1.50 off WYB Milk.  Like paying  $2.49.

Crystal Light (I'm addicted) - $8.59, BJ's coupon for $1.75 off.  Like paying $4.84.

Good Seasonings 10 pack - $6.99.  BJ's coupon for $1.75 off.  Like paying $3.24.

Pre-Coupon price for all 4:   $33.56

Post-Coupon price for all 4:  $17.56

Savings:  48%

Nestle Deal from BJ's Journal

Coupon:  Buy 4, Save $10 (essentially $2.50 off per item)

Tidy Cats Litter - $12.69, BJ's coupon for $3 off, MFC $1/1 from Tidy Cats website.  Like paying $6.19.

Stouffer's Mac & Cheese - $8.99, BJ's coupon for $2 off.  Like paying $4.49.

Buitoni Ravioli - $9.99.  No coupons.  Like Paying $7.49.

Nesquik - $6.99.  No coupons.  Like Paying $4.49. 

Total Before Coupons:  $38.66

Total After Coupons:  $22.66

Savings:  41%

2 Huge Tubs of ICBINB:  $6.29

BJ's Coupon:  $1.50 off

MFC:  $1/2

Cost:  $3.79

(see the power of combining BJ's coupons with MFCs?)

Other Deals:

1 case of Goya Beans (6 cans)- $4.59.  Use $1/5 MFC from paper.  6 cans for $3.59.

Friskies Cat food - $12.89.  BJ's coupon for $3 off.  MFC for $1/1 from paper.  $8.89 for 18+ pounds of cat food.

2 Land O' Lakes Half & Halfs - $1.99 ea.  $1/2 MFC from paper.  $1.49 ea.

Scotch Brite Sponges (15 pack) - $9.99.  $3 BJ's coupon.  $6.99 for 15 sponges.  I needed sponges.  I remember last year I used a few $1 MFCs with this and got the pack for $4.99 or something. 

It's no extreme couponing, but hey, $51 is $51.  I'll take it.  I was going to buy most of this stuff anyways.  The oreos are mostly for the husband - he brings his lunch every day and I find that it's easier (and cheaper) to just buy things in bulk and separate them in snack baggies for him.  The spell check isn't working on my Blogger right now - so apologies for the many misspellings in this post.  Spelling isn't my thing. 

Garden Challenge 2011

I like to garden.  Odd, right?  Well for those who personally know me.  I've been composting for over 2 years now.  Again.  Odd. 

The past two years, I started plants with seeds.  I swore I wasn't going to do it this year.  But, yeah, I did it.  My dining room was turned into a green house 2 weeks ago and I still have about 3 1/2 weeks before I can even think of planting my 65 plants from seeds outside.  See:

This year, I only planted what we eat an abundance of:  Tomatoes & Jalapenos. 



I first bought a Jiffy Seed Starter Tray (72-count) at WallyWorld (with a gift card) and got my seeds there too.  Trashy is as trashy does.  I'm proud of my Walmarts gardening.

I planted the seeds and they grew, and grew and grew.  So I went to Lowe's and bought 8 8-packs of Jiffy Pots (one actually had 9 in it) and potting soil.  I used my 10% gift card promo for buying a huge gift card at Lowe's during Tax Rebate season.  So essentially it was all free - but I'm going to calculate the cost for this experiment of mine this year.

And of course you see in the pictures what they all look like now. 

So as of today, I spent $38 on gardening supplies so far.  Actually, I spent $0 - since I used a gift card I was given and my Lowe's rebate, but since I missed out on buying something else with that money, we'll call it $38.

I really don't plan on buying anything else for my garden this year.  I compost so I don't buy fertilizer or anything (although my father tells me to).  I don't buy mulch - I use newspaper. 

So my experiment this year is to see if I actually make out buy doing all this work myself.  With tomatoes nearing $3.99 a pound due to Florida's crappy weather and gas prices & Jalapenos always costing $3.99/lbs - I'm going to try to weigh all my tomatoes & jalapenos to see how many pounds I can generate from my $38.  As long as I get 10 pounds of vegetables, I will have broken even.  I do not put a price on my labor because it is the labor of love that gives me a boutiful garden.  Isn't that special?

You can find my Gardening antics on that spiffy tab up there by the title now.  I learned some HTML code for those so now I'm going all tab crazy. 

Now hopefully I didn't just jinx myself and my beautiful little plants with this experiment.

Free Hand Towels In My Mailbox - Thanks JCPenney's!

I don't shop at JCPenney's regularly.  I don't have a JCPenney's credit card.  I did sign up for some JCP Rewards about 2 years ago though. 

About 4 times a year, I get these wonderful coupons in my mailbox from JCP.  They are the most coveted coupons in the World.  It's $10 off any purchase of $10 or more.  Now you don't have to be a math whiz to realize that if you buy something for $10, you walk out of the store with it for free.  Free = Cheap = Fun!

Tacky as it may sound, that's exactly what I do.  I usually always run in and pick up something for the house:  soap dispenser, hand towels, shower curtain, dish towels, pillows, etc.  If there is nothing good in the home section, I usually just grab a shirt for myself.  Whatever is on sale for $10-$12 - because it generally comes to pennies with tax.  And even if I drop a buck or two, it's still a great find.

So if you don't shop at JCP regularly, I still highly recommend you sign up for their rewards program.  I think they tell you to give them the credit card number that you most use at JCP, but you can just leave that blank.  The link is HERE in case you missed it in the first paragraph.  Honestly, I'm not sure if being a member is what generates these coupons to me - but it's the only thing I can think of.  I mean - I love a store that gives me $40 in free merchandise every year even though I never shop there unless I have one of these suckers. 

Already a member and usually get these coupons?  Check your mailbox on this rainy day!  It might be in there!

My Odd Soft Side

So this blog is taking a real odd turn after about a year of putzing around.  I promise to get back to posting about grocery store coupon savings eventually.  Maybe.  I'm not good at following through a lot of times. 

One thing about being cheap, for me that is, isn't so much that I don't want to spend money - I just want to make sure that I am getting the most value out of my dollar.  This was apparent 2 weeks ago. 

So here's a crazy thing that happened to me.  I'm a Yankees fan.  I live about 6 miles to the border of Boston.  So for the die hard Red Sox fans, I'm kind of like a Nazi.  Another quirk about me - I love radio contests.  Honestly, I've probably won about 2 dozen things off the radio in my 31 years of life.  No joke.  Well back in March, I won 2 tickets to a Red Sox opening day party.  Oh joy.  Since they were playing the Yankees though, I thought it would be great to go.  Unfortunately, when we found out the time - due to work, school, life, etc. - the husband and I couldn't make it.  Boo Hoo.

Well 3 days later, I got a call from the radio station.  Apparently they raffled off a $1,000 gift certificate to the store Roster (located at Natick Collection, Legacy Place & Faneuil Hall).  Who won?  Me.  They specialize in Boston area sports team apparel.  No Yankees t-shirts to be had there.  I'll be honest - I could not fathom spending $1,000 at a "non-necessity" store.  Overwhelmed doesn't even describe the feeling I felt. 




So we went off to Natick.  We hit up the Roster there where I picked up a t-shirt and hat.  Total:  $64.99.  The cashier informed me that another store in the mall was owned by them and my gift certificate could be used there too.  The store is All-Stars.  And I was excited to see that a 10% coupon printed on my receipt for All-Stars. 

So we went down to All-Stars.  I had this bright idea to make up a gift basket to donate to my son's school to be raffled off.  My budget for this was about $200.  Even in the grand scheme of things - even with $200 donated, I still have to spend $800 - which again is not really registering in my head because it's just a lot of money to spend on Red Sox crap - oh I mean stuff.

I got a bunch of items and the total was $208.  I had so much stuff and the kids were acting a fool that I was just trying to hurry up and I DIDN'T EVEN GIVE THE CASHIER THAT 10% COUPON!!!!  I remembered it when I got in the car (and I am not crazy enough to go back in and see if they would have honored it).  Now granted, I shouldn't care because it's not even my money - but it seriously bothered me for a few days.  I mean 10% would have been $20.80 - which would have been another hat or a kid's t-shirt for my gift basket!  I think this is my true "cheap" side coming out.  I'm trying to tell myself it's not really that I'm greedy and I WANT that extra $20 in this store (because heaven knows, it pains me every time I have to make a Red Sox purchase) - but the fact that I didn't maximize the value of that purchase really kills. 

So yeah.  Call me greedy. Call me cheap.  I don't care.  The fact that I forgot that coupon will linger in my mind for a little while longer because I can be a little psychotic like that. 

With another trip to the Dedham store a day later, I ended up spending $220.87 on a donation that will be raffled off at my son's school starting this week.  Here's the final product:

I'm not sure the details of how they are going to raffle it off - the school has it.  They can do whatever they want with it. They are selling tickets all this week and will be announcing a winner next Sunday at a softball tournament.  My personal goal is to hope the school raises $500 in ticket sales for it.  No reason then I hope to maximize the $220 spent on something good that the school could use.  I'm sure the principal will tell me what the final verdict - I just hope it's nothing pathetic like $30.  That would kind of suck. 

Speaking of "doing good stuff" - I'm going to be posting about a great Giveaway I'll be hosting here in a few days.  Pretty much - if you had a free $50 to "do good" with - what would you do?  So start brainstorming and more details will follow soon!  Woohoo!

Freebie Review - Ocean Spray Diet Sparkling Cranberry

Many moons ago, I requested a free sample of some Ocean Spray drink on Facebook.  I'm not really a big "request freebie" type person.  I guess I was just zoning my kids out that afternoon or something so when I came across it, I bit.

Well I kind of forgot about it like I do most things.  But I was pleasantly surprised that when I came home today - after 4 1/2 hours of cleaning a local school parking lot for Earth Day (I consider this my "hugging a tree" for the day) - I found a box from Ocean Spray in my mailbox.  In it:

Naturally, I had to crack it open right away because I'm like that.  So the verdict?  I give it 4 out of 5 stars.  Why not 5?  Because there is no vodka in it.  Vodka would have scored it above 5 stars.  But being as there is no vodka in it, I think it's pretty tasty.  Did I mention there is no vodka in it?  It's very carbonated - which some people might not like - but I do and sometimes my opinion is all that matters.  This product makes me proud to live in the same state as the World's Most Famous Cranberry Harvester.  Way to Go Ocean Spray!  And many thanks for the free 8.4 ounces of hydration you provided me on this beautiful Earth Day.

Being Cheap - & Loving it!

So yeah.  It seems that a lot of people get insulted if they are labeled "cheap".  I personally don't care if someone calls me "cheap" - these things generally don't bother me.  Besides, I can be pretty darn cheap.  I'll admit it.  I don't like spending money on myself unless I really have to.  Want an example?

This is my most favorite and most used cookbook.  I've owned it for about 10 years.  It's been in pieces for about a year.  My mother said to me recently "Why don't you just go out and buy a new one?"  So I told her that I'm not going to - but I need to go to the basement and duct tape it.  She informed me that I could get the same book for about $12.  I told her that I didn't want to "waste" the money.  Chime in her "Really, Rebecca?"  Is it really "wasting" money though?  I do use this cookbook a lot.  In the grand scheme of life - $12 really isn't much for something that does get a lot of use.  But for what ever reason, I am too cheap to buy a new one. 

But I got motivation to duct tape it:

Isn't it purdy?  It fits right in with my high-class life now.

Look - it even works like it was never damaged:

See!  Brand new!  Almost.  And I still have all the stains and water marks on the recipes I use the most so I don't have to re-crap up a new book.  Being as it's the Earth Day season - I'm also saving the Earth by not throwing this beloved book into the trash. 

Show off your "cheap" pride with your "being cheap" shame story.  It's okay.  We won't laugh at you.  At least not to your face (and that's only because this is a blog and we never see each other face to face). 

Bargain Hunted Me a KitchenAid Stand Mixer!

Well ladies - I know I've been slacking on the blogging - but I'm feeling a twinge to get back into it.  No extreme couponing for me - just me being cheap.  You know how I roll.

Well anyways, I am here to announce that I have finally arrived today!  I've been a homemaker for over 5 years now - and I just (yes, on 4/20) got my first KitchenAid Stand Mixer.  Can I get a "Woot Woot!"

So I bargain hunted this down to about $186.  It's the Artisan model.  I went with the silver color since it seemed the most high class - and I am the queen of high class.  The retail price for it at Kohl's was $359.  We all know Kohl's marks up everything though.  Well it was on sale for $299.  I had stolen $30 in Kohl's Cash from my mother - so it brought that down to $269.  Then I had a 30% off my total order coupon - which brought it down another $82.20 - making it $186.   A bonus too:  When you buy one of these suckers at Kohl's, you get a mail-in-rebate for either a free Food Grinder attachment or a free glass bowl.  I think I'm going to go with the glass bowl.
I am now officially a Homemaker. 

If you already own one of these suckers, you need to let me know awesome things to do with it.  I am still overwhelmed with this purchase.  My husband hasn't seen it yet.  He may kill me.