Quite often when I try to enourage myself to do the "right" thing (financially anyway) I try to look at the finances from a different point of view. Which is sorta what I am doing when I answer the question in this post's title.
As I have paid my mortgage down, I have looked at how much of each month's payment goes toward interest, as the remaining amount goes back to me as it ups my "equity" ownership of the house. I am now at the point where the monthly interest is only $180, or just $6 per day. Of course there are other bills on the house (utilities, insurance, taxes). Those I estimate are monthly $75, $50, and $250. That totals $375, then add in the $180 and I get about $550, or about $18 / day. That's certainly better than renting a small apartment where I would pay at least $1,000 a month (around here anyway). Its just a different way of looking at how the extra payments on my mortgage help accelerate my payoff, and it makes the extra payments feel more worthwhile.
Now for extra items (if you're up for a long read)...
Physical therapy is going fine. Extra painful during the sessions, as my yelling out in pain at times can attest. Only two weeks in, and my range of motion is almost back to where it should be (ok, in some directions that's true, others I still have a ways to go).
Oooh, I just put in the last $2,000 for my 2010 Roth IRA. Its now maxed for this year (before May no less!). Not sure what I will put that money into, but I have an idea. Now I need to roll over an old 401k into a Roth, and I will be cooking.
In my efforts to eat better, and still eat cheap, I have started to use almond and soy milk in place of the skim milk I have used for years. Regular milk seems to go bad fast, too fast for me as I live alone and don't use it much. The other types of milk last much much longer. But these milks seem thicker to me, so I have been diluting them with water, maybe 25-33%, which tastes better, and brings the price down close to real milk. And with it not spoiling so fast, it may be just as cheap now. Something to consider.
I pay how much monthly for my house? (and more)
May 1st, 2010 at 04:17 am
May 1st, 2010 at 12:06 pm 1272715562
May 1st, 2010 at 04:09 pm 1272730168
May 1st, 2010 at 05:27 pm 1272734859
I included the utilities as where I live there are a number of apartments where you pay for some, or all, of your utilities. I know that some areas all the aprtments have all utilities included. Basically you want to get an apples to apples comparison, so you would include or exclude as appropriate. But as utilities aren't a make or break item in the calculation, I included them to show you want to be thorough when doing this.
May 27th, 2010 at 11:24 pm 1275002692
I'm single, too, but i buy 3 gallons a time at Costco and freeze two. When the third gallon in the fridge gets below the halfway point, i take one out of the freezer. It takes several days to dethaw.