It was payday yesterday and we are already broke. Well, every dollar we have has a job and there is NO room for extra expenses or overspending. I hate this feeling, but its what we have to do to pay off the mortgage in 4 years. I ran the numbers – currently 57% of our take home salaries are going toward mortgage bill and extra principle payments. No wonder there’s no room for fun. Yesterday, my son was having difficulty breathing due to the air quality so I purchased a pack of face masks. Because I was bit stressed out, I don’t know if I grabbed the cheapest brand or lowest quantity. After his breathing calmed down, I started panicking about the $12. Where am I going to find that extra money from? Groceries? Gas? I dislike this feeling worrying and overthinking every time I shop now.
My husband has been attending several parties for his coworkers who have been forced to retire early. It has made him realize how fortunate that he still has a job, but weary of his future with this company. Best case scenario is that he will be forced out in 11 years when he reaches early retirement age based on the companies calculations. I told him we have to come up with a long term plan for this as well as a short term plan if they let him go next year. Aggressive saving needs to happen, but we are already stretched thin because of the mortgage payoff plan. Man, this money stuff is hard.
Lastly, a random rant. I hate checks! I wrote several budgeted checks a few weeks ago that are still outstanding. It really irks me and messes up with my budget calculations. Cash your check people!
The C.F.O. Mom Blog 
Mind read much? I feel exactly the same way twice every month! It is nice to see our goals inching closer but once in a while it would be great to not feel like I’m packing around my entire batch of feelings about money every moment of every day. Good news, there are loads of us feeling the same way and I really do feel comforted reading about my fellow travelers on this journey, so thanks for sharing the climb.
AND…I hate checks too. Seriously, cash that sucker already!
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Yeah, it would be nice to just swipe the card and not think about it! I remember those days. But debt free will be a much better feeling when I get there!
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I know how it feels to see the paycheck in your account and know that each and every penny is allocated for something already. For me, all spare cash goes to my student loans. It is awesome that you are going to pay off your mortgage in 4 years though!! And I agree, uncashed checks are the worse! I hate writing them because they always through off my budget!
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Well that’s the plan anyways. It’s hard though when you just want to do something fun but know better. 🙂
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Hello, new to your blog and reading this article makes me really sad! These has to be a way for you to still meet your goal of being mortgage free by 2020, which is a fantastic goal to have but still, you need to have fun as well!
You have inspired me to see how one can accomplish such a goal in such a short time span as I am looking to become a home owner in the next year as well! Not only accomplish it but have some cash for mental relaxation!
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Thank you for stopping by and reading. It’s weird because on the one hand, I’m stressed about the money spent. But my long term goal is comforting to me knowing that my family will not be blindsided by loss of income. But you are right. Maybe a little wiggle room would be healthier.
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That’s an awful feeling! It makes sense to prioritize your mortgage especially considering your husband’s work schedule. I hope you can budget in a bit of fun money to give yourself some breathing room.
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Yeah, maybe I need to think the budget…again. Lol. I am not sure if this is sustainable for 4 years.
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Good luck with your planning. 🙂
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Thanks!
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I know the feeling of being cash strapped. Paid off $120k I. 2.5 years and that was rough. It may help to loosen the money chains a bit so you have some life balance. Good post
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Congrats! Wow, that’s amazing. On the one hand, I’m super motivated. On the other hand, I’m not sure I can make it like these for 4 years.
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Totally support you in the mortgage payoff, as we did the same thing. You may have to examine your timetable and see if you can start funding a budget line for unexpected expenses… Not emergencies, but the month with suddenly two kid parties, or someone is sick and a tight grocery plan flies out the window.
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What was your timeline? Did you have to adjust your payoff date throughout the process?
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We never set a specific date. We tried to make frugal choices every week (bringing lunch, couponing, eating simple meals, accepting hand me down kids clothes etc.). Each week we had a certain amount to work with for food,gas, haircuts, random household purchases. Anything that was left went towards the mortgage. Some weeks we “saved” 100 of our own money. Other weeks, life happens!
We got “gazelle intense” … When we were down below 20,000 to go to pay off we took the money from our emergency fund and it was done.
We still use the same budgeting system, and at the end of the week anything unspent gets allocated into other categories. Currently we are saving to go to England in 2017.
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I wonder if not having an end date would be helpful for me. Hmm…
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When a goal and a budget gives you that much stress and so fe fun, than it is in my opinion not a good goal and budget.
We value the now equally as the future promise of Financial Independence. This means are budget has room for fun via discretionary spending buckets.
What would happen if the goal to be debt free is 2022? Is that a real problem? How much wiggle room would this add to the budget?
When we underspend a few months on the fun budget, the money goes towards investing.
Just my thoughts. It is personal finance and we each have another personal view on goals, fun,budgets. That is what makes it an interesting community
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You make some very good points. I do love the advice and support from the other personal finance community. Extending our goal by 2 years would help a lot. However, I can’t be sure my husband’s current employment will last that long. There are pros and cons on both sides but you have given me some things to think about!
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That is what i love about the community: the ideas and support…
I do not know the situation of your husband: 2020 or 2022 both seem far off when the industry is in stress today.
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One thing I’ve learned about the money journey over the past few years is that it takes us a little while to find the best way to meet a goal, and then sometimes things get so derailed that we need an entirely new plan. Things happen, and strategies are reassessed, but really, the most important thing is to have your end goal, the drive to get there, and some flexibility when things become crazy! Good luck! I feel you on your husband’s instability at work – that’s been our life for the past 6 months and we still have no contract for the coming year. The uncertainty is so frustrating – and it can really take its toll on a family. Thinking of you!
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That is so frustrating! Yeah it’s making me looking at our long term finances in a very different light.
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One of my goals with my budget is to never have this feeling of scarcity. It’s good that you are so focused on your goal and are being aggressive but there is something to be said about having some flexibility and peace of mind.
I try to adjust our misc. and fun stuff accordingly to our spending. So if we are going over in a category due to an unexpected expense , I pull from the vacation fund or fun line item. So we still feel the consequence of not sticking to the budget but it never feels like we can’t pay or do something since its comes from a discretionary spending categories.
Do you have any fluff or fun line items you can allocate towards and pull from when you overspend?
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We have an “other” line that we adjust as needed. This month, our other line is practically non-existent due to medical bills.
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Your last sentence made me chuckle. I was actually going to write something similar in my post today. I paid someone over a week ago, and he has not cashed the check yet. I have to keep deducting it mentally. 😦
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Lol! Yes, the mental deducting! So annoying.
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There are tricks to having that “extra”, and that is to do those things that let’s the money add up slowly over time until eventually you have a decent amount. But you have to be willing to do those things pretty much constantly to let the money build up so when the “oh no I need money” times happen, the money is there.
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