We made our first lump sum payment 💸 on the principal of our mortgage today!! We also set up a double payment each month for the next 8 months!! To see our mortgage loan drop by so much in a simple “refresh” of my web page is something else I have to say…

What a huge blessing it is to have been able to pull this off in the same year we moved across Canada and bought our first house! My husband and I both work very hard, (his job is far more demanding than mine, mind you) and we are extremely careful with our budget.

If we stay the course & are able to stick to a tight budget with focusing on our savings, we could potentially have our house paid off in 7 years. I don’t know about you, but an 8 year mortgage sounds pretty flippin’ amazing!! It would be an absolute dream come true to be able to do this!

Here’s what we changed in our budget in order to afford this:

(And hopefully continue to do the same each year!)

• We cut out ALL of our subscriptions except for one. We kept Apple Music, I love music so much, and listen almost 24/7, along with my husband and daughters. We get our $$ out of that subscription! This is the *only* frill in our budget.
• We shop grocery sales. We buy meat with reduced stickers on it, or “last day” and freeze. We eat whatever is on sale during the week & try to stock up with an extra item or two when funds allow. We don’t buy much in the way of processed foods at all & we try really hard not to waste any food!
• We don’t eat fast food, we don’t order in food or eat at restaurants. I cook at home, we eat at home.
• We shop close to home, we live in a very small town and try to get what we need here. We may head into the ‘big city’ once every 4-6 weeks, but it’s not very often.
• We only buy clothing & the like if we actually NEED it.
• We don’t shop for “fun” any longer. In fact I don’t find shopping fun at all anymore, and i’m glad this is no longer a thing. I am quite grateful for what we have and it is enough.
• I’ve cut back & cut out gift giving. Now, my husband and I love to give gifts, but we’ve greatly cut back on the dollar amount in order to align it to our budget.

Overall, we are content & grateful for what we have. We consider it a huge blessing to have our own home in such a beautiful area. Our bills are always paid early, we are healthy, we always have healthy food on the table and our children are happy. Life is good & we are abundantly blessed. 🙏🏻

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Do you have any financial goals for the year?