What can I possibly say besides, "My husband rocks!"
This is us at the bank and my hubby signing our final payment on the house!
In the early years friends used to introduce us as the couple who had everything, except money! God provided everything for us, cars, clothes, shoes, furniture...we never bought anything but food...or as my kids say, "we lived off of hamburger helper, hotdogs, mac & cheese, and oodles of noodles!" Thanks to our generous friends we ate out at least once a week for a real meal and Friday night dinners with my in laws.
When we got married we bought a nice townhouse and moved after five years when I was pregnant with our fourth child. We owned a small Christian Bookstore where we made practically nothing and got paid about twice a year, after Christmas and First Communion season. We moved back to our hometown and bought a nice cape cod, lived there for six years and had three more children. After our seventh child was born we found our dream house across town which was a foreclosure in the best neighborhood!
We sadly closed the bookstore and my husband got a new job, we started to appreciate things like sick leave, insurance, and vacations. After about seven years he got an even better job but we continued to live simply. During this time we had our other five children. Things like homeschooling our kids saved us a ton of money, making our kids pay for their own phones, their own car insurance, and college is a biggy too! Not to mention things like my coffee loving husband only going to places like Starbucks five times in his entire life! We splurge now on things like paper towels, dryer sheets, ice cream, real butter, real tomato catchup, and a monthly date out!
My husband making his growling face in front of the bank with letter in hand!
My hubby would put all the extra funds (I of course didn't know that they existed) on our house. Simple things like using cloth diapers and not stopping for convenience food made a huge difference. The kids and I would always say as we drove past all the fast food places in town, "It is a good thing we aren't rich, cuz we would stop there right now, then we would be fat and unhealthy!"
We are pinching ourselves and can't believe we paid off our 30 year mortgage in 12 years 3 months! WE didn't know what to do...have a mortgage burning party? Only our older family and friends remember things like that! So we just went out to dinner with our wonderful accountant and his wife!
Who said it can't be done...one income family with 12 kids!
(One married, 3 in college, 2 in high school, 2 in middle school, 3 in elementary, and one in preschool)
Now our goal is to pay off our van and we will be completely dept free!!! Thanks be to God!!! We will continue to live the good life and put money away for our 25th wedding anniversary and retirement!Watch out Rome...
Us in front of our PAID OFF house with the check before we mailed it!
THY WILL BE DONE!!! +JMJ+
THY WILL BE DONE!!! +JMJ+
13 comments:
Hi there! I have been following your blog for awhile after connecting to pray for you/your little Saint in heaven.
Anyway, I wanted to let you know how inspirational this post is to me. My husband and I are just starting our lives out (married two years, 2 children), and as we work through our budget/finances/etc..I find stories like this inspirational :) Thanks for sharing!
DEO GRATIAS!!!! Way to "live like no one else, so that you can LIVE LIKE NO ONE ELSE!" Keep it up and keep inspiring - ALL FOR!
Love it!! We throw money at our morgtage every chance we get. I cannot wait to have our house paid off!
Congratulations Sam and Robbie! That is an accomplishment to be very proud of! You both are awesome and have an awesome family!! I think about you guys and I prayed for you this summer. I have now found God and am so peaceful and truely happy on the inside. I went through a difficult time this summer and God got me through and I have found an awesome church and I am more centered than ever. Parts of my life are in his hands and I know he is with me and I truely trust him. I have turned my life over to him. I look forward to seeing you all in the future. Love you guys...Cathey
Wow, congratulations! What an awesome accomplishment. You all really are an inspiration!
Fantastic! Good for you! Have a great week. +JMJ+
Congratulations! That is so awesome.
Congratulations!!!
Deo gratias!
DEO GRATIAS! What a fabulous feeling it must be. Our only debt is our house, and we hope to hit that aggressively.
You are going to love Rome! I suggest going in the fall - beautiful!
Wow, congrats!!! If you ever feel like posting more specific tips (which I know would mean more personal info, so that might be a no go), I would love to read them! We just bought a house in June, will live off of one VERY modest income when we start a family, and unfortunately I bring crippling student loans to the marriage (but no credit cards for us, other debt, etc). We would LOVE to advice of someone clearly wiser ;).
12 years and 3 months to pay off a mortgage is a milestone! I don’t know what you’ve been through to pay your dues, but I bet it took a lot of discipline and compromise to do it. While it’s true that finding a good mortgage deal takes a lot of research, I think you can only be successful with it if you’re diligent enough with the bills. CONGRATULATIONS, Sam! :)
Congratulations on finally paying off your house! You guys have been through a lot, and did a whole bunch of saving to be able to get to this point. I’m sure it wasn’t easy trying to save and pay off bills at the same time. Your patience and thriftiness has definitely paid off. You’ve also taught your children to be disciplined with money, which will definitely serve them well as they grow up.
Paying your 30-year mortgage in 12 years and 3 months is a great achievement! You did a good job in prioritizing your expenses and I’m thinking about how you managed to drive past all the fast food places in town. Anyway, congratulations again for paying your home loan and I hope that you already paid for your van by this time.
- Julio Oyola
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