I have been on an exciting and fun adventure of finding ways to spend less, cutting my expenses, and savingย more and feeling great about all of these.
It has been a year that I started this adventure – the beginning of last June. According to my calculations I have saved around $7K within the last year, which is awesome.
How did I do it?
The main reason for me was to needย it.ย My motivation came from havingย the ownership of an old house that can require serious repairs anytime. As a matter of fact, the second week Iย moved into my home my roof started to leak from multiple places. It took me around a year to get it fixed and when it was fixed, my chequing account was in the negatives.
I could sell the house, which I many times considered, but then I did not. I like it, the neighbourhood, the yard, and how easy it makes my life. Long story short, I decided rather to cut my expenses and get rid of the “I am penniless” feeling.
The majority of my life I have had a frugal life style. So re-assessing priorities and implementing shopping bans (on items like books I used to buy every weekend), taking the bus rather than the cab, following the sales and designing my meals around the items on sale, stocking up when other products are on sale, having a “no waste” policy in effect, making my own bread and eating out less than before, looking for ways to further reduce my unnecessary expenses by either being resourceful or by saying “no” have all been very useful.
Now my chequing account is healthy and I have a great budget that works wonders for me. I have one lump sum payment for an investment plan coming up next month, which I have already saved since the new year. I am hopeful that after that, I will be able to save a nice sum of money till the end of this year.
I have been thinking about what to do with the savings…..
I am one of these people who is motivated by having a clear objective and working towards it by frequent monitoring. The progress makes me excited and keeps me motivated. So, since I have reached my objective (i.e. having a healthy chequing account balance), I have been craving for my next financial objective.
I have maximized my regular RRSP, I have increased my payment for the HBP (home buyer’s plan) re-payments, and I am steadily saving and investing in my TFSA account. I have not maximized my TFSA yet; I had used a portion of it as down payment.But in three years or so, it will be maximized, too. I am not worried about maximizing it at this time, soย I guess I am more inclined towards reducing my mortgage with my savings. That is my next big objective – exciting! ๐
So far I have not made lump-sum payments to my mortgage, butย thatย time is now coming. Yesterday, Iย estimated that with my current saving rate and without a hazardous expense, I will be able to save around 5K till theย new year. I have been contemplating about this, and I decided to use it towards my mortgage principal. Since I amย planning to increase my mortgage payments in September, when I hope will get a salary increase, altogether till the end of my term (I have 3 years), I will be able to drop the mortgageย by a total of $12,800.
My aim is to make other lump-sum payments tillย the end of the term. The number I have in my mind is to reduce my mortgage by an additional ย $7,200 during the term, totaling the extra payments to $20K. This is an ambitious butย an exciting plan ๐ I am pretty sure I can find a way to do this.
Do I think I can come up with this amount?
Yes, I can. I love being frugal and resourceful, and I love making good choices about my spending and money.ย Unless something drastic shows up I should be able to reach my goal…
Let’s cross the fingers – it is possible that the salaries may be reduced due to the problems in the economy. I hope not, but if it does happen, the mortgage plan may fail. Or, I will have to find additional ways to save more and reduce that mortgage. Exciting times :))
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