Merry belated Christmas. We had an enjoyable time getting away from work for an extended weekend. Driving home we passed through several rain fronts, saw one 18 wheeler tipped over into the ditch from high winds, and witnessed many flooded areas. This morning a layer of freezing rain had coated all of the trees and the extra weight had caused many limbs to break off.
Shae noticed some water seeping into the basement, but nothing to be concerned about. The much more alarming discovery was when I went into the attic to check mouse traps. On my way down I noticed two very wet patches of floor where there shouldn’t be water.
On closer examination it appeared that water was coming into the house along the chimney and wicking down along the nearest rafter. I checked the bedroom below and sure enough there was some water discoloration on the ceiling. 🙁
Our roof was just put on two years ago, so I gave the roofer a call. He said that he would come around to look at it when the weather cleared up and it was safe to walk on the roof. He didn’t get any arguments from me, there is no way I would ask someone to walk around a steep icy roof.
There was still a slow persistent drip that needed to be dealt with to prevent any additional water damage. I can’t fix it from the outside, so the best I can do is divert that water to where I want it to go. In this case, a bucket. The best way I know how to do that is to create a wick. I nailed a rag into the rafter to interrupt the flow of water.
The water now flows down the rag and drips into the bucket. Voila, one MacGyver band aid.
and not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse because I just bought eight more mouse traps. If you recall, we have a bit of a mouse problem in our house as they have set up shop in the drop ceiling above our bed. Ewwww. Anyway, while I was at the store I perused their selection of 50% off Christmas decorations. This year our various strands of decorative lights had all given up the ghost and I am way to frugal to pay retail. At 50% off though I caved and bought a few strands of Christmas lights to do some last minute decorating. I figure in two days everything will be at 75% off so that would be the ideal time to stock up for next year.
Today, with Shae’s help I also finished making our homemade ravioli that we are giving away to friends and neighbors.
So far we have made a basic spinach & ricotta, butternut squash & gorgonzola, butternut squash & goat cheese cranberry, and our final most refined one was sweet potato & gorgonzola ravioli. We experimented with different dough recipes, rest times, rolling thickness, and cut out diameters before finding what we considered to be a tasty ravioli. I’ve made over 250 ravioli and at 2 minutes a piece it has definitely been a gift from the heart. Next year it may be back to easy and quick sugar cookie cutouts. Now that’s a sentence I’d never thought I would hear!
Here is one last frugal tip before I sign off and enjoy our traditional Christmas duck. If you are driving, make sure that your car tires are fully inflated. Under inflated tires reduces gas mileage and prematurely wears the tire. I checked all four tires on our car and found that they all needed some topping off.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night (except for those damn mice).
The two key fobs to our car died a long time ago and we have just used the key ever since. Last week I decided to do something about that. The battery type is listed right on the back of the fob (CR2032).
I searched online and saw one forum saying that Dollar Tree had 3 for a $1. Naturally, I tried there first, but our local dollar tree doesn’t carry button cell batteries. I did find a set of two at Wally World for $4, a price that beat Walgreen’s 1 for $5.
With the replacement battery procured, I had to figure out how to open the fob. There was a very small indentation at the 5 o’clock position that a flat head screwdriver could fit into.
With the fob opened up, it was a simple matter to replace the old battery and close up the fob again.
Prices for new fobs for our car range from $12 (Amazon) all the way to $100 (stealership).
Today a great mystery was solved when we were finally able to answer the long burning question, “What goes bump in the night?”
It all started back on May 21st, 2014. Shae and I were laying in bed and dozing off to sleep when we heard it.
chtchtcht chtchtcht chtchtcht
“what is that noise?” I thought to myself while laying in bed.
“Did a bat get in, it sounds like it is coming from the ceiling”
I flipped the light on. There was nothing flying around the ceiling.
chtchtcht chtchtcht chtchtcht
The sound moved across the room over to the wall.
“Maybe a squirrel or raccoon got into the attic?” I said to a groggy Shae.
Tepidly I opened the attic door and walked up the steep steps. Hmmm, maybe I should have brought along some sort of weapon to fight off a rabid coon. gulp!
I made it to the top of the steps and gingerly set the light dimmer all the way down so as not to enrage the beast. <flip>
Nothing. I peak around the area above our bedroom and fail to see any intruder. I crank the lights to full brightness just to make sure the neighbors know how strange we are.
I walk back downstairs and see Shae staring at the bedroom ceiling right above where we sleep every night.
chtchtcht chtchtcht chtchtcht
A year later…
and the mystery noise made another appearance. As we tossed and turned in bed trying to not think about the critter walking around feet away from our heads I devised a plan.
The next morning I cut a hole in the attic floor.
Our bedroom has a drop ceiling that is hung from 1×2 strips. Above that is the original lathe that held the now gone plaster. Then above the lathe are the joist bays. The drop down ceiling provided the perfect place for critters to scurry around unobstructed. My plan was simple. Break a section of lathe so that any critters could more easily move between the drop down section and the joist bay, then place traps within the joist bay. Finally, I replaced the cut out section of flooring.
After a few days of checking the traps and not seeing any results I left them alone and then forgot about them. It wasn’t until today when we were cleaning up the attic that I checked them for the first time in months.
Sure enough, the home invader had been stopped with deadly force.
It must have triggered the trap shortly after I had set it because the corpse was thoroughly desiccated. Now we know what goes bump in the night.
Parents tripping over toys and little mice scurrying around the joists.
A note about frugality and humane killing
Old fashioned mouse traps like these are cheap at less than 50¢ a trap. They are also a very humane way to get rid of mice. They are designed to break the neck of the mouse, which would be a near instant death. The last thought of this mouse was most likely, “wow this peanut butter tastes great”.
929 days, or 2 years 6 months and 16 days, or simplified even further 2½ years from the day that we took on a mortgage to the day that we killed it.
2½ years ago we bought our house with a 15 year mortgage. By living a frugal lifestyle we were able to make quadruple payments on our mortgage and be debt free in only 2½ years!
Mortgage Balance
Being debt free is a huge step towards financial independence, the ability to dictate where, when, what, and with whom you work. For many people, financial independence is commonly realized as retirement. A time when you can pursue your own interests and not have to depend on a paycheck.
For us, our monthly mortgage payment was the single largest monthly budget item. Now it is a thing of the past and let me tell you, it feels liberating!
I often think of mortgages in two ways. The first way is that a mortgage, just like any other type of debt is a pay cut that you negotiate for your future self. If you make $50,000/year and you take on a $500/mo payment, you have effectively given yourself a pay cut of $6,000. Earning less is no fun, but that is essentially what debt does.
The other way that I think of mortgages is to visualize the rooms of your house. We have about 12 distinct areas of our house (foyer, living room, dining room, kitchen, basement 1, basement 2, bedroom 1,2,&3, master bath, attic). Our mortgage was 33% of the value of the house, so the bank ‘owned’ four of the twelve rooms of our house. For people that only put down 1-2% on a house and take a loan for the other 98-99% they only have a few square feet to ‘live’ in because the rest belongs to the bank!
Of course, any discussion about paying off a mortgage has to include the age old argument, “is mortgage debt good debt?” This is an argument that is entirely personal in nature. Camp good debt argues that with the historically low interest rates that homeowners can secure 3-4% it makes more financial sense to make minimum payments on mortgages and invest the rest into the stock market in the hope of earning 7-10% there. The 3-6% profit makes mortgages an easy source of leverage. The other camp argues that paying off a mortgage is a guaranteed 3-4% and it is too risky to leverage your home for stock purchases.
I would argue that any debt over inflation (about 2%) is bad debt and any debt below inflation (less than 2%) would be good debt. I say that with the major caveat of this being personal debt. Businesses is a whole different ballgame.
So what was our grand super duper secret for paying off our mortgage so quickly? In three words,
below our means
The house that we bought was a foreclosure put up on auction. We could have bought a house twice as expensive with the mortgages offered by big banks. Instead we bought a fixer upper.
The Day We Moved In
This house had sat empty for three years. While that made the price drop down into bargain territory, it also made for some hefty elbow grease.
New Water Heater Required on Day 1
toilet didn’t even have a seat
leaky plumbing everywhere!
pony up more cash for missing appliances
Sweat equity moving and installing ourselves
Thankfully, we had family that pitched in to help us move and install a number of appliances.
moving new refrigerator
installing a new dishwasher
sliding a dryer down the stairs
Sister-In-Law cleaning up the bushes
Planting flowers
Thank you!
It has been quite the journey. Being frugal and saving money is a means to an end. For us that includes being debt free!
Now What?
Now we will redirect that mortgage payment money so we can max out our tax protected retirement accounts. Once those are maxed out, any surplus money will be spent on whimsical fun things! Hurray delayed gratification. ?????
