Mortgage Refinance- COMPLETE!

Posted on June 28, 2015 by Sheila

Background– I have lived in this house for 22 years as of next week. The original house mortgage was at the interest rate of 9.99%. This mortgage was sold and re-sold so many times that I lost count. The last company that we ended up with was called “OCWEN”. When interest rates headed down in 2007, we decided to try and lower our interest rate. At that time, we were told, by the mortgage company, that the only way we would qualify for a lower interest rate was to allow our mortgage to become 3 months behind. I did some checking and because of my previous bankruptcy, the fact that I was a stay at home mom, and Matt work history of less than 5 years, it would be very difficult for us to qualify for a regular mortgage/refinance without a significant cost of $3 to 5 thousand dollars. So we did allow our mortgage to get 90 days behind and were able to lower the rate to 5.99% with a whole new mortgage of 30 years. This has turned out to be a costly mistake. As you know interest rates have dropped significantly again in 2010, however our credit showed a 90 day past due on the mortgage so we were stuck in a not the best mortgage.

Now to the start of the process, we had decided that once we were able to get out of consumer debt except for our mortgage that we would have a significantly higher chance to qualify for a re-finance or new mortgage. I have been watching our credit scores over the past year and had a goal of attempting a re-finance in January 2016. For some reason, or in my opinion, God’s timing, a piece of mail caught my attention the first of May. This was an advertisement for re-financing at a rate of 3.5% and it stated we had already qualified. After some quick checks on the company on the internet, I decided to give them a call. My honest thought was that there is almost nothing worse than Ocwen where you spend 10 to 20 minutes a month trying to pay your bill. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it was true, we did qualify and we started the process. On Friday, the process was completed at least for the most part when we received an wire transfer of most of the equity that we had built up over the years. We are still waiting on our escrow money from Ocwen. I am not going to say it is completely finished until this is received. One other piece of information to keep in mind as you read the numbers is that we did build an 800 square foot addition to the house which is currently our master bedroom suite. We did not finance this addition so most of the equity was gain by this 3 year project.

Numbers-
The new interest rate is 3.85%(a drop of greater than 2%), on a conventional mortgage. The mortgage term is 15 years, which is down from 24 years that were left on our current mortgage. One of the biggest surprises was the appraisal value of our house which came in at 140,000. . A decision that we made to withdrawal 20% of equity is probably not one that everyone will agree with. However for us, it has allowed us to have a complete reset of our budget. A final change of plan that occurred during this process, was our very apparent need to purchase a new van. After prayer and number crunching we decided to use some of the equity as a down payment which allowed us to achieve a manageable payment on a very nice family van.

My plan is to share our new budget that will start July 1st in addition to making some updates to my yearly goals/monthly goals during this next week. I hope you will stay around to watch this chance for us to position ourselves in a much more stable position in regards to our budget and savings.

5 Things Friday

Posted on June 19, 2015 by Sheila

1. The closing on the re-financing of the house is set for Monday morning at 8am. I will be so glad to get this finished. The company that was eager to help and answer questions up front has turned out to have very sad communication skills. We found out the date of closing when an attorney called to schedule with us around 2pm this afternoon.
2. With the rain the last several days, our garden may not fail! This evening we picked another batch of green beans (plan to use on Sunday), several cucumbers (made another batch of cucumber relish) and more importantly we found a pumpkin, several watermelon and a cantaloupe growing along side of our green peppers. We should also start with tomatoes in the next week.
3. I have managed to demolish our new food budget of $700 this month. I purchased 40# of ground beef to be picked up in July, which puts me currently at $792 for the month. Uggg when does this get better?
4. If the weather cooperates, we will be spending the majority of the day at the pool tomorrow, I am in need of some rest and non stress time BADLY!
5.Both the girls are practicing piano in the morning before I head to work. I was able to recognize one of the songs that each was working on. I am so pleased and proud of the way they are learning music.

Random enough?

Random Thursday Thoughts

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Sheila

Matt and I have survived our first week of car sharing. Because we do not feel comfortable driving the white van and the truck does not have working air conditioning, we have been car sharing. The current plan is continue for at least 2 more weeks.
My summer clothes shopping is finished. I was able to purchase 2 pair of shorts for myself, a t-shirt for Matt, a shirt to match a skirt for Lily, a pair of short for Lily and 3 pair of shorts for Kendall today all for $92 or about $11.50 each.
We will be increasing our food budget to $700 a month starting in July. Today I used our rewards coupon from Costco help us stay on track for the budget for June. We only needed 3 items but decided to go ahead and buy some extra produce and a couple of fun food items as well. Out of pocket was $23 for 22 items at Costco or $1 an item. No way to match that!
We are suppose to close on our new mortgage next week so I plan to share more detail and our new budget some time after that.
I am already working on the new budget but had to adjust both the water and electric bill higher than I anticipated due to the extreme heat (above 90 for the past 10 days with prediction of another 10 days). At this point if we do not water the garden will be start to lose anything that we have. I had planned to water every third day but I may have to alternate every other day in hopes to still get a decent harvest.
Tonight we made the tough decision to skip a practice. We are in week 3 of 8, with 4 night a week swim practice in addition to cheerleading and piano. Because we have been car sharing, everyone has been out to at least 8:30 each night this week. I am tired and so are the kids, which is evident by attitudes so Zach, Kendall and I stayed home while Lily went to cheerleading only.
Amanda is planning to bring a camper over next week and stay the week allowing the kids to sleep outside in the camper with her a couple of nights. I am not sure how this will work out but everyone is excited so at least it should make for some good stories in the future.

Saving on Saturday- Garden

Posted on June 13, 2015 by Sheila

Today’s harvest

Saving this Saturday is hopefully one that continues all summer long. We are starting to get in some items from the garden. This week, I froze my first batch of cucumber relish and we are enjoying cucumbers and squash on a regular if not daily basis. I am hoping by the end of next week to start freezing some squash as I only have one pack of squash lasagna left. Our square foot garden is the larger and prettiest it has ever been. I am hoping to not only freeze tomatoes but also make some salsa as I have ran out of both of these items.

More Squash growing!

Regular Tomatoes

Lots of cherry and grape tomatoes starting to form.

Tomato and corn plants are the same height in the back. the small corn is what was planted 2 weeks ago.

Cucumbers going down the hill and squash on the side

last bed planted

5 things Friday

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Sheila

1. The white van left me completely stranded yesterday. Luckily after some investigating, Matt was able to replace the battery with one we already had so no out of pocket expense.

2. Our house appraisal came in much higher than we anticipated, which sounds like a good thing but it means more choice and decisions to be made. I am going with the lesson my mother taught me “never count your chickens till they hatch.” so waiting to actually share numbers and our new budget after everything is settled.

3. Lily and Kendall have 1 more week of school left. Both are excited for the summer! Lily finished required testing this week and scored 5 out of 5, the highest possible on both Reading and Math.

4.My work is crazy. For the first time EVER, I actually worked 40 hours this week. I was really nervous about going over 40, which is not allowed. I managed to stay inside the 40 by 3 minutes.

5. The weather is much cooler than normal and it has rained every day this week. My garden is loving it! We even have corn spouting from the seeds I planted last Saturday.

May in Review

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Sheila

Blogging: Goal: 15 per month Goal Met! I am at 17 or 18 post for the month!

Weight: Goal: Met and maintain weight of 175. This goal will be considered met each month that weight loss is achieved and once this weight is achieved, each month maintained is considered achieved. Goal met for the month. I am moving in the right direction.

Spiritual- Goal. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year. Biggest Fail of the month.

Financial Goals-
1. Pay off all debit by December 2015, except for mortgage.
a. Home Depot-   I am now planning to pay this completely off in June, but this is going to be depended on a couple of factors that I don’t have any control over.
b. American Express   – Smaller than anticipated payment. I only paid $200 this month.
c. Personal Loan (used to purchase van) .The current scheduled payment is $217 a month with this scheduled to be paid off in December 2015.

2. Emergency Fund to $2000. Fail

. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month . After what seems to be an extremely long month. We ended up spending $712 for the month This was not a true success but it really is a success because our monthly average is down to .$572 for the year so I am back on track.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs. Goal Met. I spent $402 on gas this month including covering tags, taxes and inspection on Matt’s van, a new fuel filter on the white van and new radiator cap for the car. This is a huge success.

Disney- No progress

May seems like a very long month. In the area of finance it does not appear that we made any progress but we are in the process of refinancing our mortgage which will dramatically change our path. Currently we are waiting on the appraisal. Once things are more settled, I am planning to share details, as well as plans. Looking ahead to June, I anticipate another month of close to or over our budget for Groceries just based on things we are starting to run low on. I have not changed the budgeted amount in 3 years even with the significant rise in price and an increase of consumption of food due to growing kids, so I may need to readjust in July based on our actual spending in June. Gas prices are suppose to stay close to their current rate however with us going to the pool on a frequent basis I think we are going to keep that amount the same at least for the summer. I will definitely share changes and new goals in June so that should make things interesting overall.

Random Budget Thoughts on Thursday!

Posted on May 14, 2015 by Sheila

This month I am really paying attention to our budget. The goal is to get our spending under control and be able to pay down most of our debts except the mortgage over the summer in addition to saving to pay for our Disney Trip. I keep reminding myself and Matt that every dollar is important at this stage and that each dollar we save puts us a step ahead. I am also trying to enjoy the small victories like using the clothes line!
I was able to hang out 3 loads of clothes today on the clothes line. While shopping at Walmart this morning for a toaster, I picked up 100 wooden clothes pins. Let me tell you these are the cheapest made clothes pins that I have even seen. I had to use 3 to hold up shorts and even some shirts. Matt was excited to smell the fresh laundry. I would love to say that I am going to start hanging our at least one load of clothes a week but in reality I don’t see it happening. So I am simply going to enjoy the fact that it happened today and not worry about when and if it happens again.
Our square foot garden is actually growing really well. We have only lost one pepper plant and one cucumber plant, otherwise everything is growing. I am excited each evening to check out what is growing. We have pumpkin and corn in addition to our green beans that are all growing from seeds. The other plants are also growing. We have been watering about every third day so I hope in another month to be harvesting!
Over the past several months we have been keeping the budget low by using up our stockpile. We currently have 2 freezers in our building. In January, both of these were filled to the brim. Today, I could combine the contents of both into one and it would not be full. My goal for the summer is to completely restock the vegetable freezer. I am hopefully to accomplish a lot of this with our garden but otherwise I am going to budget $50 a month to buy in season fruits and veggies. In the month of May, strawberries are in season. Last weekend we picked a total of 3 gallons and froze at least 2 of these. I am hoping to get another 2 gallons this weekend. One to enjoy and one to freeze. The second freezer is for meat and the only meat left in it is chicken. I have already planned a trip to the meat market/butcher the second week of June. This will take about half of our grocery budget for June but hopefully will last the rest of the summer.
The white van is continuing to cost us. I am becoming increasingly frustrated with it. I just don’t like the idea of continuing to put money into something month after month after month. Currently the discussion is what is our best options. I honestly don’t feel comfortable driving it on long trips and especially going to Disney. So depending on our budget and saving we have some tough decisions ahead of us. Currently the goal is to keep the van running until September and then re-evaluate the situation.

Random Thought Tuesday

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Sheila

I have lots of these to share!

Happy Cinco De Mayo, we celebrated by having cheese Quesada and Mexican Rice for dinner. Matt and I ended the day with margarita wine! Yes we are partying hard.
The white van is having even more issues, currently I have a flashing light and it is running rough. I am frustrated. In fact I am so frustrated that we are discussing options for purchasing a new to us car and making payments. The goal right now is to wait several months in order to reduce our debt load and make sure we can afford a new huge monthly expense.
I purchased 48 bottles of water at CVS for a grand total of $0.10 yesterday. This was in fact all tax. I have not been shopping regularly at CVS for over a month now but was excited to actually grab a great deal and use ECB at the same time.
Our bean plants have spouted! I have had horrible luck with planting seeds this year that I was becoming concerned that the green beans would not grow either. In fact I was trying to find a store to purchase live plants from. But yesterday, they started popping out of the ground and today I am counting a close to 90% growth rate from the seeds.
Spring/Early Summer has finally arrived in North Carolina. The high temperature this week are crawling slowly into the 80s. We have not needed to turn on our air condition yet but I am sure it will not be long. The great news is that we have now been a month without use heat or air. Our electric bill should remain below $200 for the month of May as well!
Amanda has applied for and been accepted into the community college starting in the fall. I am so excited and proud of her.
On Sunday both Lily and Kendall participate in their final cheerleading competition for the year. Lily’s team received a special honor of best tumbling for the entire day! My plan is to post lots of fun pictures for Wordless Wednesday. Pictures not only of the competition but also from the rides we enjoyed at the amusement park where it was held.

April In Review

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Sheila

Blogging: Goal: 15 per month Goal Met! Even with posting this month in review 2 days late! Go Me!

Weight: Goal: Met and maintain weight of 175. This goal will be considered met each month that weight loss is achieved and once this weight is achieved, each month maintained is considered achieved. Fail again! May is the month that I am getting back on track with this! I have been fairly consist with exercising but the diet part is lacking,.

Spiritual- Goal. I want to spend time reading and or studying the Bible at least 5 days a week for the year. Another Fail! I have been reading at least 3 days a week need to up my game for sure.

Personal Goals: Achieved 1 of 3

Financial Goals: Achieved 2 of 4 (50%)

1. Pay off all debit by December 2015, except for mortgage.
a. Home Depot-     $170 a month Payment. Will be paid off in September. Smaller than usual payment to offset expenses and also I ended up purchasing some new dirt for the garden. We are still on track with no interest paid on this card so May and June will be catch up months.
c. American Express   – pay $900 this month. Again smaller than anticipated pay so I have to buckle down.
d. Personal Loan (used to purchase van) .The current scheduled payment is $217 a month with this scheduled to be paid off in December 2015. Goal Met!

2. Emergency Fund to $2000. Used this to cover the unexpected car repair. So we are starting at zero again. Fail

. 3. Groceries: Spend $600 a month . Huge success this month. We spent $195 on groceries including $50 worth of plants for the garden. The real test will be in May if we can stay around $800 for the month, then this will be back on track for the year.

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month with any remaining to be move to Auto fund for repairs. I was unable to pay for this last repair out of our gas money so ended up using the Emergency fund to cover the large repair cost of $400. Otherwise on track with spending $364 for gas, which does include our gas for all trips this month as well.. In May, we will have to cover tags, inspection and taxes on the Dodge van. We also have several out of town appointments. My goal will be to stay at $400 including these extra expenses.

Disney- The yard sale was a HUGE! success! In fact it was the biggest yard sale profit I have ever made! I did pay an additional $300 toward our trip so this is awesome! I do not expect to make big gains in this area until July due to extra annual expenses that are coming due in May.

April was a crazy expensive month. I had planned for our cheerleading trip to the beach but with yet another van repair, we are now going to have to tighten way down for several months. I was extremely pleased to realize that we actually met several of the established goals. May is another expensive month. I have been able to save some money in advance but in May we have to pay insurance and pool dues. In addition our mortgage has increased due to the escrow account, that I am unable to close. I am hopefully that all car repairs are done for several months. No extra saving or spending planned for May but I am doubtful to have anything extra.

Random Thoughts Thursday

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Sheila

It does not feel like just a week ago we were enjoying some fun at the beach!
Matt’s birthday was Tuesday but due to our schedule we decided to celebrate tonight. He wished for things to slow down and I just laughed!
I am amazed at the difference in the weather in different parts of the country. Today it was windy but 65* but in Michigan it snowed! I am also very thankful I don’t live where it snows in April!
I was able to plant most of my square foot garden today! The current plan is to finish it in two weeks and replace anything that does not survive. I thought I had checked the weather better but it turns out that we have a chance of going below freezing today so I hope everything survives. I am so excited to get things growing!
. We are doing really well on our budget for the month. I knew in advance that our beach trip would cost us extra and I am hoping to cover the additional repair to the van as well. As of today, we have spent only $121 of our $600 grocery budget and that includes not only the plants you see above but steaks for Matt’s birthday dinner! In gas, we have spent $309. This amount does include our gas for travel to and from the beach but not the repair that was made on the white van prior to going. I don’t see that we will be spending anything more in gas but do expect to end up spending around $150 on groceries by the end of the month.
Weird things excite me, as you can tell from the numbers above, we have not been grocery shopping this month. On Monday, we went down to our building where we have both our freezers. In the chest freezer is all veggies, it is starting to look a little low except for the zucchini which I froze over 2 years ago. The other freezer now only contains chicken and is less than half full. I am excited to finally be using and seeing a difference in our grocery budget. I definitely don’t want to use up all our stock pile but like the idea of starting fresh at the end of the summer and attempting to maintain the same $600 budget after cutting it down to a fourth for a couple of month.
Our next and final cheerleading competition is only two weeks away but it at Carowinds which is an amusement park. It will be very expensive but a fun trip. I am actually really looking forward to decreasing our schedule by at least one night a week for cheerleading! Swim team starts everyday in the month of June so I am not sure what we will do for the month of June this year. I would love to take a month off from cheering but just don’t see that happening!

Teens Tots and Everything In Between

Life, Love and Coupons

Category Archives: Goals