February Review – How to Pay 2 Mortgages

The household budget for our family is $500 a month and includes all
groceries, household products, clothing, gifts, decorations and
newspapers.  A little on the lean side?  Perhaps, but it works for our family.  Whether your number is $300 or $1000, you should do what works for your family.

As many of you know, we bought a house recently.  Even after paying the property taxes, insurance and counting $200 a month for repairs, it’s still saving us about $150 a month over the cost to rent a home.  I’m not sure that I’ve mentioned that we still own our home in Arkansas, or the fact that about two weeks after we closed on our new house here in Tyler, the family renting our old one broke their lease and moved out.  Our last rent check came in January and the deposit money they forfeited didn’t cover all the repair costs. We’ve always had a healthy emergency fund that we are now dipping into each month to cover the gap.  It’s my job to stretch our dollars as far as possible to cover as much of this loss as I can. I’m doing it by cutting our spending and our use of anything extra.  The majority of the extras will have to go- even extra electrical usage. (At least I’ll be getting to bed at a decent hour now!)


Thankfully Little One’s birthday presents were purchased before the new year and my sister has blessed us with enough hand me down clothes to get her through the summer.  No new clothes for Hubby and I this summer unless they are under a $1.  I own 5 pairs of shoes, all of which have reached the end of their functionable lives.  They will only get replaced if I can find a pair for under $10.  I’ve given myself a budget of $15 for Turkey’s summer wardrobe.  By shopping at Goodwill and garage sales I can easily come up with 9 shirts and 9 shorts for that amount. He needs so many because the purchase of a new washing machine is also being delayed (unless a cheap one presents itself on Craigslist) and I’ll be continuing my weekly trek to the laundromat.  All minor repairs and decorating our new house are being put on the backburner. No going out, no childcare if I can possibly do without it, less mileage put on the van, only buying produce, milk, and reduced meat.  I will reserve $20 a month to keep the stockpile growing because it’s so crucial. You name it and it’s being cut from our budget. 


I’m not trying to complain, just point out that there are many extras in our daily lives that we don’t think of as luxuries, but they are simply that- luxuries.  Anyone can make cutbacks for a period to accomplish a goal.  My goal is to keep as much of our emergency fund intact as possible.  Once the house is rented again we’ll slowly begin to adjust our lifestyles back to that of having extras.  Until then we’ll keep on cutting back and from experience I can say that we’ll hardly feel the pinch!