December goals

December will be a mix of a lot of work, and then a nice break over the holidays. We're heading to the Oregon coast & will stay for about a week. Looking forward to time with my family.

Here are my goals for December.

Financial:

• Stay on track with our food budget, including both eating out & groceries. 
• Come up with one way to reduce what we need/spend on an ongoing basis
• Earn another $100 in side hustle money. 
• Continue our 2019 budget prep, including our plans to try & lower our mortgages, and potentially paying off our vacation house. 

Family:

• Have one family evening together: cooking dinner, board games, etc
• Have a date night with my husband
• Continue financial help (knowledge, not money) with sister & friend, as opportunities arise
• Take the kids to see Christmas lights
• Help the kids sell their nice BMX bikes (they haven't been in a long time, and want scooters instead)

Fitness/health:

• Get in 31 workouts in December
• Complete another full round of 21 Day Fix
• Eat 5.5 servings a day of fruit & veggies
• Don't gain weight

Work:

• Work from home 2 days
• Work on my my "homework" from my coach

Personal/creative:

• Plan sabbatical! Start sketching out dates on the calendar
• Make my holiday bread
• Read 4 books
• Blog 6 times
• Declutter at least 20 items from our house on the coast
• Complete a freezer challenge, and get rid of 16 items from the freezer

That's it for me! I need to take a look at our 2018 goals, and see how we're doing. What about you? What goals are you working on for December? 

Freezer Challenge - Week 2

I did reasonably well with the first week of my freezer challenge.

1. Lasagna. Pan 1 of 2. This will sub in for a couple of dinners this week. Done. Ate on busy nights, and M finished the rest for lunch. 
2. Edamame. We have a bag of shelled edamame that will go well with dinner this week, so I'll add it in Done. Served with dinner. 
3. Chicken chowder. I'll defrost a bowl & eat it for my lunch on Friday. Done. I had this for lunch on Saturday & Sunday. 
4. Pot stickers. I'll serve them with dinner this week, although this will certainly not empty the bag. Done, and it actually finished the bag!
5. Wontons. Same as the pot stickers. This will maybe take care of 1/2 the bag.  Done. This finished 1/2 of the bag, as expected. 
6. Rotisserie chicken. Use one bag for risotto. - I ended up using a different kind of chicken for dinner, so I polished off that bag, but the rotisserie chicken remains. 
7. Chicken broth. Ditto the rotisserie chicken. I'll have to get creative in finding recipes that will move more than one ingredient at a time! - Same as above. Didn't get to this during the week.

I also used a few bonus items that I hadn't expected to get to this week:

1. Remainder of a bag of chicken strips
2. 2 packages of chicken breasts
3. Over ripe bananas (turned into banana bread that I made for a friend).

So, with the bonus items considered, I'm feeling good & enjoying the challenge. Breaking it into manageable chunks definitely helps.

Here's my menu plan for the week, as well as the freezer items:

• Friday - we were all on the go with soccer, so lasagna
• Saturday - date night, and a friend fed the kids
• Sunday - chicken artichoke bake
• Monday - Tacos (meat from the freezer)
• Tuesday - leftover chicken artichoke bake
• Wednesday - Taco quesadillas
• Thursday - spaghetti & meatballs. Meatballs from the freezer, along with homemade tomato sauce (freezer)
• Friday - chicken risotto

So, here's what's on this week's challenge:

1. 1 container of taco meat - dinner for Monday/Wednesday 
2. Container of homemade tomato sauce - dinner for Thursday
3. Rotisserie chicken - dinner for Friday
4. Chicken broth - dinner for Friday
5. Tortillas (won't use all of the bag, maybe 1/2) - dinner for Monday/Wednesday
6. One container of soup - lunch on Saturday/Sunday

What about you? Are you doing a freezer challenge? What's on your menu for the week, and are you weaving in any freezer challenge items? 

November Goals Recap

November was a great month, that included both a family vacation (Hawaii), as well as Thanksgiving at home. Work was pretty crazy, particularly before & after taking time off. Here's how we did with our Christmas goals!

Financial:

• Stay on track with our food budget, including both eating out & groceries. Even on vacation! We have a special part of the travel budget for groceries, and groceries in Hawaii are $$, so we'll factor that in as well. - Yes! We spent $545 of our $625 grocery budget, and $0 of our dining out budget (during the month, excluding vacation). We included our vacation groceries & eating out in our vacation budget, but I'm still happy with our tradeoffs, and not eating out any other time during the month!
• Come up with one way to reduce what we need/spend on an ongoing basis - We bought flasks for everyone. They were about $8/each at Costco, and we've loved them. We normally use plastic water bottles, but they don't hold up well to travel. These flasks have saved us so much money, as they keep water cold for 12+ hours. They can also keep hot beverages warm for an extended period of time, but we haven't tried it for that purpose yet. Typically on a vacation, we would have spent $25-40 on cold drinks, at the airport, around the pool, etc. Instead, we made great use of the ice machines, and filled with water & didn't buy any plastic water bottles or drinks (other than a couple of smoothies by the pool for the kids). Win! These will help us keep our drinks expenses even lower on an ongoing basis. 
• Earn another $600 in side hustle money. Split this between college money for the kids, & an extra payment on our vacation house mortgage. - I made $470 in side hustle. I forgot that selling on eBay when I'd be out of town wouldn't work terribly well, so I saved most of those items & they sold yesterday (12/1). I was able to send more than planned to college/mortgage paydown, as we received a check of $828 from our vacation house mortgage after we PAID IT OFF! :-) Escrow refund. We are now diverting extra funds to be shared between college money & our primary mortgage. 
• Continue our 2019 budget prep, including our plans to try & lower our mortgages, and potentially paying off our vacation house. - We paid off our vacation house, and spent quite a bit of time working on details for our 2019 planning, but it's still a work in progress. 
• Start & finish my Christmas shopping - We're about 75% of the way there. Still need a few ideas for Sam, but plan to take him to Target today to look around. We did purchase the skis for the kids, and I got my other gifts that need to be mailed out of the way. 

Family:

• Have one family evening together: cooking dinner, board games, etc - Definitely. We had a great time in Hawaii, but also have had several puzzle nights, and everyone helped cook on Thanksgiving. 
• Have a date night with my husband - Not in November, but we had one last night! Just a day short. ;-) 
• Continue financial help (knowledge, not money) with sister & friend, as opportunities arise - Nothing came up this month. I expect this to be something we chat about over the holidays. 
• Have a fabulous trip to Hawaii - It was absolutely great. No regrets, other than having the kids miss two days of school. It's never been a problem in the past, but the school is incredibly strict, and I didn't do enough research. Despite lots of pre-planning, notification, attempts to do the work early/after, both boys have had several classes drop grades, which is really sad. Lesson learned. Hawaii itself was amazing.

Fitness/health:

• Work out every day in November! - YES! I did 30 days of working out (a few days I worked out 2x to make up for travel days, etc). 
• Complete another full round of 21 Day Fix - Yes! I really enjoyed it. 
• Eat 5.5 servings a day of fruit & veggies - I don't think so. I didn't track super closely, but I'd say I was more like 4/day. 
• Lose 2 pounds - My weight stayed the same. 

Work:

• Work from home 2 days - I did this. 
• Work on my my "homework" from my coach - Sort of. I rushed through the work, post vacation. 

Personal/creative:

• Plan sabbatical! Start sketching out dates on the calendar - I haven't done this. 
• Make one new recipe - Yes! I made several new recipes - bacon stuffing for Thanksgiving, and a leftover rollup with crescent rolls. Both were great. 
• Spend time with a friend - I don't think I made this happen. 
• Volunteer at least 1x - Nope. November was hard. I did find multiple donation opportunities, and also went to a Dress for Success event to bring some work clothes I no longer need. 

Altogether, I'm really happy with how November went. What about you? How did you do with your goals? On to December! 

Rite Aid Haul

I went to Rite Aid today to spend ~$80 in rewards, as well as to use a 30% coupon. I always forget that the 30% off coupon doesn't apply to on sale items, so it was less useful than I'd expected. This Rite Aid had zero ads/flyers. The cashier mentioned that they didn't receive any this week, so I had to look up some of the items on my phone, and made some errors as a result, because scanning the ad on your phone is not that easy. ;-)

That said, I feel like I did well with the rewards & got some good stock up items. I also picked up $50 in Netflix gift cards, earning another rebate. We have Netflix (for now, we're evaluating the value of it, but use the movies when traveling, and/or for the kids to watch the occasional show), & buying the gift cards at least gives us a small discount.

I also was interested in picking up a few snack items for the kids & stocking up on toiletries we use frequently.

Here's what I bought at Rite Aid:

• 24 bars of soap
• A bag of pretzels
• 3 boxes of popcorn (containing 3 bags each)
• 2 brownie mixes, for quick treats to bring to friends houses (for the kids)
• 4 kids shampoo/conditioner/body wash
• 2 large containers of Head & Shoulders 2 in 1 shampoo
• 13 mailing envelopes (for eBay purchases)
• 2 containers of Olay moisturizer with sunblock (this is my every day face lotion)
• 2 boxes of caffeine free fruit tea
• 3 boxes of Kraft Mac & Cheese
• 4 containers of the toffee peanuts (Sam is obsessed with these). I will need to hide three, and only put out one at a time.
• 2 $25 Netflix gift cards

Total price for this was $142.74 (tax inclusive). I used $79.82 of rewards, and paid $62.92. I also earned $14 in new rewards. 

I realized that I hadn't earned the full rewards on a few purchases (not having the ad), so I had to make a second purchase:

• 6 bars of soap
• 2 more Olay moisturizers with sunblock 

Total spent = $14.17 (tax inclusive), & I earned $16 in rewards.

In summary, I spent down $79.82 in rewards, earned $30 in new rewards, and paid $27.09. (I'm not counting the Netflix gift cards, as those come out of a different budget). Super happy with the deals, as I was able to pick up eBay supplies, stock up on snacks & tea, and get toiletries that should see us through 2019.

I didn't find the Chipotle gift cards at my Rite Aid, so may try to find them at another store. 

What about you? Any wins at Rite Aid or elsewhere? My big win for the week was buying $300 in Home Depot gift cards, and earning $30 at our grocery store. We have many house projects still underway, so these will be used for sure. And, free grocery money? Yes, please!

Frugal Friday

It was so nice to have the long weekend after Thanksgiving! Here are a few frugal things we did over the past week or so:

1. Made chicken broth from bones, & used that (plus leftover chicken) for soup
2. Found incredibly cheap turkey, stuffing & gravy on clearance at Costco ($30 marked down to $9). Made that for additional meal options
3. Used Ebates for holiday shopping to earn cash back. If you haven't signed up for Ebates, it's a quick & easy way to earn a bit of cash back on purchases made online. (This is a referral link), in case you want to try it out, although I'm assuming all frugal blog readers are already members!
4. Found ski pants at Costco. I avoided buying these all last year, and couldn't button my ski pants (these are pre-kiddo ski pants, and were a slim fit at the time). The cheapest I found these at a ski shop was $65 last year, and Costco had them for $22.) Goodness, I love Costco. 
5. Bought discounted gift cards for things we'll use (Uber, flights, etc).
6. Called Costco Travel about an issue with our rental car, and they will be sending us a $35 cash card for the trouble. 
7. Price matched our sheet set, and will get a $19 rebate.
8. Remembered a gift card that I had for $27 and would be expiring in December. Used it to buy a Christmas gift. Gift was more expensive at the location where I had the gift card, but was still a better deal considering the $27 in credit. 
9. Paid for a summer camp, earning a 10% discount by booking early.

However, in completely non-frugal news, part of the gift card value I earned was put on a local grocery store gift card. 90% sure the cashier never gave it to me, although I may have dropped it while putting it in my purse. So, $40 of store value, gone. I'm pretty sad about that, but if I did drop it, I hope it went to someone who could really use the groceries.

Lots of frugal things this week, as well as our standard, "eat from the freezer", carpool, etc, stuff.

Quick update on my freezer challenge for the week:

Lasagna. Pan 1 of 2. This will sub in for a couple of dinners this week. - We've eaten 2/3 of this. Will eat last 1/3 tonight. 
Edamame. We have a bag of shelled edamame that will go well with dinner this week, so I'll add it in
Chicken chowder. I'll defrost a bowl & eat it for my lunch on Friday. - Meeting M for lunch, so this will get bumped to tomorrow's lunch. 
Pot stickers. I'll serve them with dinner this week, although this will certainly not empty the bag. - I was wrong, it did empty the bag. Gone!
Wontons. Same as the pot stickers. This will maybe take care of 1/2 the bag. 
Rotisserie chicken. Use one bag for risotto. - planning to make tomorrow night
Chicken broth. Ditto the rotisserie chicken. I'll have to get creative in finding recipes that will move more than one ingredient at a time! - planning to make tomorrow night

Comments, ads & freezer challenge, week 1

A few housekeeping notes - I adjusted the comment setting to hopefully allow more users to comment without creating a separate account. If the spam gets unmanageable, I'll shut if off again. I also turned on ads. I haven't had them on in years, but supposedly things have gotten better with the Blogger ad system. We'll see. I'll keep my eye on it, and take them off if they become a problem.

Inspired by The Frugal Girl & the crazy full state of my own freezer, I decided to do a freezer challenge each week. I like the idea of trying to tackle a few items each week, vs an overly optimistic "eat everything in the freezer" plan.

Here's what I have on my list for this week:

1. Lasagna. Pan 1 of 2. This will sub in for a couple of dinners this week.
2. Edamame. We have a bag of shelled edamame that will go well with dinner this week, so I'll add it in
3. Chicken chowder. I'll defrost a bowl & eat it for my lunch on Friday.
4. Pot stickers. I'll serve them with dinner this week, although this will certainly not empty the bag.
5. Wontons. Same as the pot stickers. This will maybe take care of 1/2 the bag. 
6. Rotisserie chicken. Use one bag for risotto. 
7. Chicken broth. Ditto the rotisserie chicken. I'll have to get creative in finding recipes that will move more than one ingredient at a time!

That's it for my Freezer Challenge, Week 1. I'll report back in a week, and also set targets for Week 2. Anyone want to join along, or want support for a similar challenge? 

Thinking of goals for 2019

As I do every year, I'm setting a variety of goals that I'll reflect on & tackle over the course of the year. These are a work in progress, but reflect what I'm currently thinking about for my 2019 goals. 

I like the five buckets I use, as they keep me reasonably in balance. As with everything in life, there are seasons where I spend more time on one bucket vs the other.

1) Financial:

• Stick to the budget
• Come up with a "pay off our house" model
• Every month, come up with a new way to reduce what we need/spend on an ongoing basis.
• Model out a 3, 5 & 10 year financial plan

2) Family - Spend more time together as a family!

• Do a minimum of one fun activity/month with the kids. This can be family puzzle night, cooking dinner together, board games, going out somewhere, etc. 
• Be more present with the kids & M - play games, minimize computer time, exercise together, etc. 
• Have two dates with M per month

3) Fitness/health - Lose 15 pounds, bringing my weight to 142ish 

• Make running a consistent part of my life. Build & follow a training plan, & run a half marathon in under 2:25. 
• Eat five servings of fruit & vegetables (combined) per day

• Work out every day in 2019. (Realistically, this will be completing 365 workouts, vs hitting every day. I want a bit of flexibility for days I'm sick, traveling, etc.) 
• Get back to more actively tracking my calories
• Complete 10,000 minutes of cardio
• Complete 100 strength workouts.
• Complete 75 stretching workouts.

4) Work/career - Improve my work life balance.

• Keep better perspective at work/reduce stress (until I leave)
• Take a sabbatical
• Decide on returning to work part time

5) Personal/creative - Spend more time on myself/creative pursuits.

• Cut my own hair!
• Make time for my friends. Do something social at least once per month.
• Volunteer a minimum of 1x/month
• Write/journal. Time, goal, etc still TBD

What about you? Are you working on your goals for 2019?

Black Friday Recap

Nick & I went out in the morning yesterday & got a few deals:

• We used a $5 off a $15 coupon at the local grocery store. I stocked up on some baking supplies we needed, plus risotto rice. We also picked up the Friday Freebie of Gatorade. Nick was very pleased about that, as he's not allowed Gatorade unless he has soccer & it's 90+. :-)
• We bought a few discounted gift cards (Uber, Gap, etc). I then used the Gap gift card to order a Christmas gift that my mom asked me to pick up. Additionally, I ordered through eBates to get cash back.
• I ordered the boys soccer shinguards & new soccer shoes for Sam. His have a hole in them. The shinguards will be part of their Christmas gifts. I ordered from Dick's & used eBates as well for the extra cash back.
• We went to Costco to pick up our weekly groceries, and found turkey breasts marked down from $30 to $9. They were huge breasts, already seasoned, complete with stuffing & gravy. I couldn't pass that up, so into the fridge it went. I almost bought two, but M wouldn't let me. ;-)

What are we up to today? I couldn't sleep, so I've been up since 3:45. Yikes. I'll definitely regret that this evening. 

1. I'm on call for work (today & tomorrow), so fingers crossed nothing comes up.
2. I'm planning to work out
3. I've turned the remains of the chicken from Thursday into broth, so that's currently cooking away on the stove
4. I have the turkey in the oven
5. I'm going to turn the chicken meat leftovers (+ broth) into a turkey/chicken chowder for the freezer & a few meals.
6. M is painting. We had the house painted when we moved in, but then had to make some adjustments (adding air conditioning panels, etc), so we've been in need of a touch up for a while now.
7. Laundry
8. Sheets/bedding
9. Finalize our 2019 travel plans
10. Work on my 2019 goals
11. And, our 2019 budget
12. Get the boys fitted for skis, so we can look for used options for their Christmas gifts
13. Clean the house (may get punted to tomorrow)
14. Clean the fridge

How will you be spending your day today? Any good turkey recipes? I made the Thanksgiving Leftovers in a Crescent Roll recipe yesterday & we all loved it! Definitely worth making. 

Menu Plan

We had such a wonderful time together yesterday, just the four of us. We all pitched in with the cooking (Nick made the pie on his own & made himself hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls), M made the drinks, potatoes & a squash salad. I made a roasted chicken (not enough time to defrost a turkey), stuffing, beans & whipping cream. Everything turned out great, and I was also able to get our bags unpacked & all of the laundry done.

Nick & I ran a few errands today (discounted Black Friday gift cards) & used a $5 off/$15 purchase promotional offer at our local grocery store. I picked up the ingredients needed for the bread I bake for the holidays, as well as stocked up on risotto rice, which we're out of.

The fridge is full, and I'm planning the menu for the week ahead. Here's what we're planning on having:

• Friday - Thanksgiving leftovers in crescent rolls (new recipe, will report back)
• Saturday - baguette stuffed with chicken tenders
• Sunday - Thanksgiving leftovers & prep soup for Monday
• Monday - turkey potato chowder (sub chicken for turkey)
• Tuesday - leftover baguette/chicken tenders
• Wednesday - any lingering Thanksgiving leftovers
• Thursday - leftover soup
• Friday - some sort of risotto

I need to drum up some energy to get in a workout, make a grocery list, and get a few extra chores done. What about you? What's on your menu for the week? Any good recipes for Thanksgiving leftovers?

Frugal Thursday, the vacation edition

Even though we've been on vacation, we did have some frugal wins. Caveat, Hawaii is by no means frugal, and we certainly did a balance of splurge vs not, but wanted to share some of our more frugal choices:

Non-vacation stuff:

• I used a lingering gift card & combined with great sales to buy two items on my Christmas list. I'll also be receiving around another $4.62 back from eBates, lowering my total out of pocket spending for the two gifts to $8. (Retail price of $60). 
• All pre-vacation meals made at home (or, for free at work)
• M fixed the garage door vs calling a repair man. We did have to buy $100 worth of parts, but used an Amazon gift card for that.

Frugal(ish) vacation options:

• Packed snacks & lunch for the flight, and ate breakfast before we left. 
• Brought our own water bottles/flasks for the airport, and used them on the trip to avoid buying bottles of water
• Where possible, brought things from home vs buying there. This includes snorkeling sets for the kids (on their third vacation), coffee pods, paper plates, laundry tabs (leftover from our last trip, as we use liquid at home), ziplock baggies for storing food, etc.
• I used my Marriott benefits to get two free continental breakfasts/day. I don't eat breakfast, and M filled in with things we'd bought at Costco + leftovers
• We bought groceries at Costco, even though our hotel room didn't have a kitchen. We made things work by bringing our panini maker from home, and requesting a microwave. The panini maker ended up being a huge win, as we were able to grill bagels for breakfast, make sandwiches to go, and grill up chicken patties that we bought.
• We ate most lunches in the room, used the continental breakfast benefits, and then ate dinners out. 
• We looked for happy hour dinner options, and brought wine from home

All in all, the vacation was still expensive, but I'm very happy with our tradeoffs. We had one expensive dinner out (M & Sam had sushi at a nice restaurant watching the sun set over the ocean), and had a fabulous trip. More details to come. I need to go sort out Thanksgiving now! :-)

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

A chilly Sunday

Our heat is broken, and despite being in California, it's still pretty chill here in the house - 56 right now. BRRR. When he had an air conditioning inspection last week, the repair tech remarked that he had trouble with one of the settings, and fiddled around to get everything to work. I'm guessing that's what the issue is, so we have a call into them. I'll try to focus on the positives - all of the savings we have by bundling vs running the heat! And, we'll be in Hawaii by the end of the week, so it's a short term problem at least.

I'm going to focus on staying positive today, and reducing negative news (Facebook, the news, etc) & negative discussions. I can see myself snapping more at home, as I get frustrated by things people say & do, and it's not healthy. We talk to our kids a lot about empathy & compassion, and I'm going to work on more consistently demonstrating that at home, particularly to my husband. We've both been really stressed with work, and we are just shorter with each other than I'd like. We are a great team, and love each other, and all of that great stuff, but I want to work on cutting down on the sarcasm and snarkier responses. Both for our own relationship, and because our kids are like sponges. Sam is by nature, much more sarcastic than Nick, and it's not great for a 12 year old.

So, with that, here's what I'm going to do today:

1. Work out. Always makes me feel better. And, since the house is cold, it will warm me up!
2. Meditate. 15 minutes at least
3. Call my mom for her birthday
4. Cook with the kids. Invite their help in the kitchen, and be patient.
5. Make muffins for M. He loves these, and we can stock the freezer.
6. Finalize our Thanksgiving plans. We may order a bunch of fresh food to be delivered the night before (we fly home at 10pm the day before Thanksgiving), so we can wake up & start cooking. I enjoy the meal prep.
7. Clean the house. While not super fun, it makes me feel productive.
8. Read for at least 30 minutes. 
9. Help Nick clean his room. 
10. Pick up a few last minute things for our trip.

What about you? How do you stay focused on the positives when things are negative around you? Would love any tips/tricks you can share. 

Smoky Saturday + a menu plan

All outdoor activities are cancelled today due to the wildfires in our area. The smoke is incredibly thick, and even inside our house yesterday, at times it felt difficult to breathe. Good thoughts to all of those impacted by the two terrible fires.

Given our unexpected schedule flexibility, we went to Costco this morning & picked up groceries. This was not a normal Costco run, as we picked up a few things for the freezer that were on sale, as well as a 50 lb bag of rice. We leave for vacation on Thursday, so far fewer perishables than usual.

Here's what we bought:

• 50 lbs of rice - $37.99
• Butter - $10.99
• Romaine lettuce - $3.79
• Pears - $6.49
• Lasagna (2 pack) -$9.99. We prefer homemade, but this is quite good in a pinch.
• Cream cheese - $7.89
• Almonds - $9.99 (we will take some of these on our vacation as an easy snack) 
• Ciabatta buns - $5.99
• 5 dozen eggs - $14.49
• 2 packs of bagels - $5.99
• Chicken - $11.89
• Apples - $8.99
• Frozen cheeseburgers (quick meal for Sam before his late practice) - $13.99
• Crescent rolls (x2) - $3.99 
• Bananas (x2) - $1.99 & $1.49 (organic & non-organic - we go buy ripeness)

Total spent = $158.93

And, here's our menu for the week:

• Friday - we had tacos
• Saturday - Nick is making hot dogs in crescent rolls
• Sunday - chicken risotto
• Monday - leftover tacos
• Tuesday - leftover hot dogs in crescent rolls
• Wednesday - eat up all leftovers. If none remain, we'll have lubia polo (Persian rice dish) from the freezer
• Thursday - we'll be in Hawaii & will eat dinner out
• Friday - Hawaiii

That's it from our side. What are you making this week? I need to get busy, put the rest of the groceries away, work out & make some pumpkin bread. Hope you all have a great weekend, & stay safe if you are in near the fires!

We did it!

After much debate as to what made the most sense for next steps, we paid off our vacation house mortgage! We'd been sitting on some of the profit from the sale of our Seattle house, and finally bit the bullet.

It's been my dream FOREVER to have a paid off house, and now I can check that box. Sadly, we have. . . um, quite a ways to go on our primary residence. The real estate market in the Bay Area vs the Oregon coast is not quite comparable. ;-)

Paying off the mortgage early will save us $88,000 in interest over the lifetime of the loan, and will free up additional cash each month. Most likely, we will divert the mortgage payment towards our primary residence, to work that down as well.

Tonight, we'll be having leftovers & champagne! The perfect frugal combination!