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Not Impressed with our Debt – Week #33 of 80 – Paying off the Home Equity Status

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I am determined to pay off our Home Equity this month. We only had $1900 left to pay on it and this week our Federal Tax refund came in so I pay $543 right to the principal of the loan. Right now the balance is about $1346.

Keep in mind that figure is not actually the payoff amount. When I made that payment I asked the teller for a loan payoff amount through the 31st of March. The actual payoff figure is around $1400.

So why is the payoff figure more than what is says I owe when I look at my account on-line.m? It’s more for a couple of reasons. One, because the interest is not fully figured in there and two, the bank charges a fee to file your mortgage discharge with your County Clerk.

Let me back up to when you sign for a new mortgage or home equity loan. When you buy a new house or apply for a home equity on your existing home, your mortgage is recorded in the county clerk’s office where you live. It shows up on your property’s history report which they call your Abstract. When you pay off your mortgage or home equity the bank is supposed to file a discharge of mortgage with the county clerk that you have paid the loan in full thereby your mortgage has been satisfied.

When you go to sell your home later, your Abstract should show the bank has filed the discharge of mortgage. If they fail to do that, that can be a real problem. Many times your original mortgage, if it was a 30 year mortgage may have been assumed by another bank more than once. Many old banks have closed and new banks have assumed the mortgages from those banks. This may be the reason a discharge was never filed.

When you pay off any mortgage or home equity, follow up with your mortgage company to make sure they indeed filed a discharge. It will save you time and money later on and a whole lot of aggravation.

I hope to get another good chunk of that loan paid off this week. I’ll check in with you again next week! -MM

Eight Steps to a Beautiful White, Blueberry Filled, Cream Cheese Frosted, Drip Cake

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A couple of months ago I popped an unfrosted cake into the freezer to use for later and forgot about it. I came across it while I was looking for something else in the freezer and thought I would bring it out to have it as dessert last night.

Cream cheese frosting sounded better than butter cream this time and I had blueberries in the freezer that I could thicken and use as a filling. Perfect!

With all the ingredients on hand I formed a plan in my mind and set to work making a blueberry filled, cream cheese frosted white cake. Yum right?

Step 1, I used a 6″ baked cake, excess cake sliced off to create a flat surface. I created a frosting “dam” to prevent the filling from oozing out.

Step 2 fill it! I thicken 1 cup of frozen blueberries with about 2 Tablespoons of flour and about 3 Tablespoons of sugar (or to taste). Microwaved it for about 2 minutes then stirred, then another 2 minutes until it thickened. Then I cooled it before using it on top of the cake reserving about half of the thickened blueberries for the blueberry drip.

Step 3 place the second layer on top with the bottom of the cake facing up.

Step 4 crumb coat. It really helps to do a crumb coat to seal in all the crumbs. After frosting with the crumb coat pop it in the fridge to harden up for about 15 minutes (go stick a load of laundry in while you are waiting 😉 ).

Step 5 final coat of frosting.

Step 6 Blueberry drip. Using the leftover blueberry mixture dump it all right in the middle of the frosted top layer then carefully spread the blueberries towards the edges being careful not to just slop it over the sides. It should delicately drip down the sides.

Step 7 using a large star tip gently pipe pretty peaks onto the blueberries. (You can never have too much frosting right?)

Step 8 slice and enjoy!!

I hope you enjoyed this fun little step by step on decorating. Hopefully this gives you some ideas! Happy decorating 🙂 -MM

Not Impressed With Our Debt – Weeks 24-27 – Up to Date Results

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Hi all! I looked back to see the last time I posted a monthly result and I haven’t posted results since October! Yikes! Sorry about that.

Between Christmas shopping bills and property tax bills that came due in January I am a little behind in paying off debt but I do have some progress to post about!

In October I posted that at the end of the month we were down to owing $30,531 in debt.

As of now our debt owed is $27,011. That’s down $3520.00. Remember I talked about owing for medical bills for a night in the emergency room that added up to at least $3500? Well I haven’t gotten the bill for it yet so as of right now that $27,011 is still a solid number.

Now that, the Old Navy balance is gone I need another bill to focus my energy on so this time I am picking a bill that has a smaller amount owed, our home equity loan. Right now the balance due on that loan is $2,207.46. Seems a much smaller goal to pay off than that $6500 Old Navy balance right?

If I can get this bill paid off quickly it will free up that payment of $328.00/month which will give us a much greater cash flow.

I told my husband every time we pay a large bill off we will add another $10 to his 401k retirement a week. Doesn’t sound like a lot but when his employer matches that amount it will definitely add up. So far we have increased his 401k contribution $20/week since December.

How are you doing on your debt? Do you use a budget? See you next week! -MM

 

SAL #2 Crown of Thorns

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It’s been three weeks since our last update and we have had multiple snow storms even blizzards in that time so boy did I get a lot done on my current project!

Here is where I left off last time which was my first post on this WIP:

And here is Jesus’s haunting face which is coming through beautifully:

It’s been an interesting experience working on this project. I had some trouble with knotting and misplaced stitches which led to some rip outs but once I started on His eyes is was like I was building him from bone structure to finally flesh. I should have taken a photo of that in-between process to show you.

I have never stitched a human face like this before.

Hopefully we won’t have any more blizzards for a while but I didn’t mind get stuck in the house stitching!

In our Stitch-a-long group we blog our progress every three weeks. If you are interested in joining our group please contact Avis, the first name in the contacts below. And don’t forget to check out the other member’s blogs and the projects they are working on by clicking their links. You’ll be amazed at the talent. Welcome to new members Jocelyn and Carmela!

See you again in three weeks! -MM
Avis,
Claire,
Gun,
Carole,
LucyAnn,
Kate,
Jess,
Sue,
Constanze,
Debbierose,
Christina,
Kathy,
Margaret,
Cindy,
Helen,
Steph,
Linda,
Heidi,
Jackie,
Sunny,
Hayley,
Megan,
Catherine,
Deborah,
Connie,
Clare,
Mary
Margaret,
Renee,
Jenny,
Carmela,
Jocelyn

SAL -#1 – Crown of Thorns

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I’m back! I am so excited to be back with my favorite stitchers. I was gone for quite a while because I wanted to concentrate on getting my debt paid down. Now that I am well into my 80 week challenge I decided it was time to get back to stitching.

I received a kit for Christmas that I have been quite taken with for years. It’s a chart of Jesus’s face with His crown of thorns which is by Vervaco. Thank you mom for the very thoughtful Christmas present! This image is haunting to me. Just beautiful in fact.

I haven’t stitched a kit in years so I am trying not to mess us to often because I don’t want to run out of a color.

Here is the kit image and here is how much I have gotten done so far. I have had to rip thread out twice! I’ll get there though.

There are a lot of other stitcher in this group. Please visit their blogs by clicking on the links below. You will be pleasantly surprised at what you see! See you in three weeks! -MM.
Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Catherine, Deborah, Connie, Clare, Mary Margaret, Renee, Jenny

Not Impressed With Our Debt – Weeks 22 -23 -Rearranging

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It’s been an interesting two weeks. I didn’t think I would get much extra debt paid off this month because I have Town/County taxes to pay, our planes tickets for our trip to Ireland to save for and now these medical bills which just got bigger today.

But get this… we had an unexpected surge of cash this week which lent me to paying our taxes in full (Thank you to Him!), that’s one off the list. We have saved about $500 for plane tickets so far and from the advice of our pastor I am going to apply for a grant through the hospital to help pay for the medical bills from that emergency room visit. We will see what happens.

Remember when I posted about reading all the mail you get? A few weeks ago I got another set of checks from our credit card company where I could use the checks to pay off anything I wanted and the interest rate would be just 2.99% for a full year.

I thought a lot about those checks and I even called the credit card company which was through our credit union and asked about the details. They were in fact valid checks and I could use them for anything.

So after really thinking about it, I decided to sit down with my favorite Credit Union rep yesterday and I asked her what she thought about paying off our Home Equity Line of Credit with one of the checks.

She said “well it would certainly save you a lot of money in interest.” The interest rate on the loan was 15% and the amount I owed was still the exact same amount ($5000) since I took it out 8 years ago. I took the line of credit out in 2010 to pay for the equipment to start my bakery and I still owed the same amount because I kept drawing from it.

Without even thinking about it anymore I told her to do it. I wrote the check and she gave me my receipt and I paid it off. In my mind it’s one more thing that’s done. Yes, it’s on a “credit card” but if you use them correctly they can actually set you free of debt. I have one year to pay it off before the interest rate goes up and believe me I intend to do just that.

Every day I work on our debt. Every day. You have to stay on top of things my friends. Keep working and using your magic to get out of debt. There will never be a dull moment!

See you next week! -MM

 

Not Impressed With Our Debt – Week 16 & 17 – Take Care of Yourself

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close up composition conceptual creativity

Photo by Pedro Figueras on Pexels.com

The last two weeks have been eye opening for me. If you have not suffered from anxiety, panic attacks and/or had large amounts of stress in your life consider yourself lucky.

While working to pay down our debt (which is stressful enough) Life has thrown us multiple curve balls since September.

When people are under large amounts of stress we tend to forget to take care of ourselves. Doctor’s appointments get missed, we don’t eat right, we certainly don’t get enough sleep and our families, God bless them, get the brunt of our stress and frustration full on.

Two weeks ago I landed myself in the emergency room for uncontrolled nausea and stomach discomfort. I couldn’t stop shaking and I couldn’t get warm. I wanted to crawl out of my skin. It got worse if I tried to lay down. I was crying and miserable and my husband, the wonderful man, was trying his best to calm me down.

After multiple tests and pumping fluids into my system the only thing they came up with was slightly low potassium. They handed me 4 potassium pills and miraculously within an hour the shaking, nausea and discomfort subsided. Hmm..

They aren’t really sure what caused all of this because my levels were all pretty good. What I suspect? Panic attacks, anxiety, and pure stress. My body is just shot from all of it. I can’t seem to handle any kind of stress right now, which is a real bummer because I have always considered myself a very strong person.

I am making some changes in my life that should drastically cut down on my stress level after the new year.

I plan on taking care of myself better and work harder to make sure my marriage stays strong and that my boys are all happy, well fed and feel loved.

I will not stop trying to pay off our debt. It is still my number one goal for the new year but goals are different than priorities.

Goals are future but priorities are now. -MM

Next week: November results!