Want to get out of debt? Here’s how we paid off our $90,000 mortgage in just 5 years! Lots of awesome tips and inspiration for paying off your mortgage to be able to live debt-free!
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While I frequently share about saving money, I don’t often mention many details about our personal financial story.
There have been different times that I’ve considered sharing more, but in the end, I’ve always decided not to because I was afraid that it would sound like I was tooting our horn or that we think we have it all together and are so much better than everyone else.
I also have worried that it will make other people feel “less than” because if you are like me, it’s easy to do the whole comparison thing and start being hard on yourself because you aren’t doing what someone else does.
And that is so not what I want this blog to be. I want it to be a place of encouragement and inspiration!
Recently though, I had a reader email me with some questions about saving money and she mentioned that although she is super frugal, sometimes she just needs encouragement to keep saving, to stick with budgeting, to be reminded often that all the sacrifices and hard work will be worth it in the end.
And I realized that by basically avoiding sharing our personal financial story, I’m really doing you all a disservice.
Because one of the things that was huge in keeping me motivated to save and pay off our mortgage was hearing other people’s stories about how they made it through tight times.
It was so inspiring to hear them talk about the crazy things that they did to become debt-free. And how not having any debt is now allowing them to pursue things that they couldn’t before or give generously in a way that they didn’t have the capacity to previously.
So, I finally decided that it was time to share more of our personal financial journey with you. I sincerely hope that it can inspire and encourage you in your own financial journey, even though it may look very different than ours!
Our $90,000 Mortgage and How We Paid It Off
One of the craziest things that we’ve done was to buy a home only 6 mo. after we were married. That might not sound that crazy initially, but the thing was, the house cost us $90,000 and we borrowed the full amount!
Plus, it was a fixer-upper, so we knew we would be putting more money into it over the next several years as we remodeled too! Definitely not something I’d probably recommend, but after getting lots of counsel from others, we felt like it was the right choice for us.
And thanks to the grace of God and a lot of hard work, we were able to pay off our mortgage in full just 5 years later, meaning that by age 31 we were debt-free homeowners!
I’m not going to lie to you and say that our life suddenly changed and we were so much happier once we were debt-free, because that simply wasn’t the case. Life was still life.
However, there was a huge sense of freedom that came from knowing that we didn’t owe anyone anything.
And it was rewarding to be able to loosen up our spending just a tad, feel like we could regularly give more generously and know that we could pursue some other dreams like more schooling for my husband.
How to Pay Off Mortgage in 5 Years- what worked for us
What were some of the things we did that helped us pay off our $90,000 mortgage in 5 years, plus do lots of remodeling work as well?
Obviously, there were a lot of things that factored in, but here are the 10 things that I could think of right off the top of my head.
1. Bought a Row House in the City
We lived in an area where land was super expensive, so this was a much cheaper option and we were able to get a nice house with a small yard for way less than we would have otherwise.
It was sometimes been a bit challenging to live in that location with 3 young children, but it was definitely doable!
2. Bought a Foreclosed Fixer-Upper
My husband is a Mr. Fix-it of sorts, so this worked for us because it meant we were able to do a lot of the work ourselves. We also had times where family and friends pitched in with smaller projects like painting and roof replacements.
I’ll be honest though. I don’t enjoy that kind of work much at all so it felt like a huge, overwhelming job to me.
It also took up most of my husband’s free time for the first couple years of our marriage, which of course had it’s downsides and often felt like a big sacrifice. We ultimately did it though because we knew the long-term benefits would be significant.
3. Drove Old Cars
We’ve never owned a car that was newer than 9 years old. Most of them haven’t looked awful (although the one you see pictured above sure did!), but neither have they exactly looked amazing either. Actually, my husband jokes that their not-so-nice appearance is a great way to guarantee that they won’t be stolen!
Even though we buy older, used vehicles, we’ve tried to be selective with what we buy and we go for cars that have had one or two owners, come from a reputable dealer, etc.
I know that still doesn’t always mean you won’t get a lemon, but so far we’ve been blessed with good vehicles and have saved a bundle in the process!
4. Only Sort of Did College
We both got associate degrees at the small college where we met and fell in love. Soon after graduation, we got married and because I planned to be a mostly stay-at-home mom once we had children, and since we were hoping to start having children before too long, I didn’t see any reason to get more education at this point.
I had been working as a certified pharmacy tech for 7 years, so I continued with that job until our son was born 20 months later.
My husband wanted to do more schooling but wasn’t exactly sure what degree he wanted to pursue. Instead of going to college without any plan, we felt it was smarter to wait until he had a clear sense of direction as to what field of study he should do.
So we chose to postpone the whole college thing for a couple of years. He then went on to get his Bachelor’s, his Master’s and is now finishing up his Ph.D.
5. Worked Hard & Worked a Lot
We were both blessed with jobs that always had plenty of work. I worked 3 days a week up until our son was born and often put in extra hours since there were almost always some available.
My husband had a good-paying job in construction where he also frequently put in additional hours so that we could pay extra on our mortgage.
We also did a variety of random things to earn more money that we then put towards the principal on our mortgage. At one point we even got paid to clean our church every week! Definitely not our favorite job ever, but hey, it helped!
Related: 10 Easily Doable Side Hustles that Will Make You Extra Money
6. Kept Our Grocery Budget at $200 a Month
Soon after our first child was born and I switched to being a stay-at-home mom, I discovered the art of couponing and deal shopping.
Along with using paper coupons, I also started using apps like Ibotta and Fetch Rewards to save even more money on groceries, including fruits and veggies!
It took a bit of time to do, but I always felt like it was one way that I could relatively easily “earn” us some money, while still being at home.
By using coupons and shopping sales, I was able to save at least an extra $200 or more on groceries each month. Obviously, that freed up a nice amount of money that we could then use to do remodel work or pay off our mortgage faster.
Get my FREE $50 Aldi Meal Plan here! It has 7 easy dinners for a family of 5.
7. Skimped on Vacations
During those first 5 years of our marriage, we took very few vacations and did very little traveling. Sometimes that was really hard because it felt like our friends were always doing fun things that we simply couldn’t afford to do….or chose not to afford to do. We had to remind ourselves often of the end goal!
8. Had Just One Cell Phone
This was one of the things that we did that a lot of people thought was just downright odd. And during that time, we had plenty of comments and hints that we were kind of backward for only having one cell phone. But the thing is, we didn’t really need a second phone.
If I needed to get in touch with my husband during the day, I could easily call him at his job. Other than that, if he was away I was either with him or we just dealt with the inconvenience of him not having a way to be contacted.
Was it a pain at times? Yes. But honestly, it wasn’t a huge deal because we were used to it.
Once my husband started working on his Bachelor’s and began to commute to school regularly, for a variety of reasons, we finally decided it was kind of important that he had a phone. Thankfully, we found an inexpensive phone plan that only cost about $30 a month for 2 cell phones, which felt very affordable!
Looking for a cheap cellphone plan? Check out Tello Mobile (includes free international calling to 60 countries and no contract).
9. Put Everything Extra Toward Our Mortgage
I’ve already alluded to this, but almost everything extra that we earned- raises, bonuses or simply side hustle income- went towards paying more on our mortgage.
Also, periodically throughout the year, we’d evaluate our budget. If there was a category where we weren’t spending as much as we had expected to, we would take that extra and add it to our mortgage payment as well.
If you need a helpful way to keep track of your debt and payments as well as see the difference that extra payments make in decreasing the amount of interest that you’ll pay, I recommend checking out a free tool called Undebt.
It’s super handy to be able to easily see at a glance where things are at with all your different debts and can help keep you focused on the goal of becoming debt-free!
10. Did Without & Lived Simply
I’ve already mentioned several specific ways that we did this, but really, doing without and living simply was a way of life for us.
During the years that we were focusing on paying off our mortgage, we bought only things that were absolute necessities.
My husband is super creative. And sometimes when I thought we needed something, he would figure out a way that we could easily make do instead.
We also bought a lot of things second hand and we rarely turned away anything free.
When we did need to purchase something new, especially if it was more than $20, we would try to wait for it to go on sale.
And if we ended up buying it online, we made sure to use Rakuten, a cashback website, so we would earn money on our purchase! (Sign up for Rakuten here and get $10!)
If there was something that we only needed for a short time or for one project, we would see if we could find someone to borrow it from instead of buying it ourselves.
In short, creativity and contentment were our best friends when it came to paying off our $90,000 mortgage in just 5 years. Although I confess, unfortunately sometimes I really stank at the contentment part!
Related: 9 Things We Gave Up to Get Out of Debt Fast
Other Helpful Tips To Pay Off Your House Faster:
STICK TO A BUDGET.
Evaluating your finances and creating a budget that works for you and your family is key to paying off debt!
If you are just getting started with budgeting, make sure you don’t make it so restrictive that you can’t stick to it. You want to give yourself a challenge but not feel so hemmed in that you get overwhelmed and give up.
PAY OFF OTHER DEBT FIRST.
More than likely your credit cards, school and car loans, and any other debt you may have, have a higher interest rate than your mortgage. As a result, it’s wise to focus on paying those debts off first, as it will end up saving you more money in the long run.
USE A CASH ENVELOPE SYSTEM.
It’s so easy to overspend when you use credit and debit cards. Instead, start paying cash. Divide your household expenses into categories, then create an envelope for each one. This specifically helps with eating out, your grocery bill, fun money, and miscellaneous expenses.
It’s proven that you are a little more frugal when you can actually see the cash leaving your hand. Of course, if you have leftover funds, tack that on to your mortgage, or put it in an account for when you make an extra payment.
More Money-Saving Inspiration:
- A Frugal Mom’s 25 Favorite Ways to Save
- $200/Month Menu Plan: What our Family of 5 Eats
- 10 Simple Expenses to Cut & Save Big
- 10 Things to Buy that Will Save You Money in the Long Run
- 26 Extremely Frugal Ways to Save Money
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Jen @ Frugal Millennial
Great ideas! My husband and I are working on paying off $117,000 of student loan debt in three years, so we do a lot of these things too. I can definitely relate to feeling bummed when you see other people going on fun vacations all the time! Living frugally has its challenges, but it’s definitely worth it to reach your goals!
ThriftyFrugalMom
Wow, go you! All that hard work will be so worth it, Jen. As for vacations, I was just feeling disappointed this week because after a lot of discussion, we decided that we should give up going to a friend’s wedding across country because it didn’t really make sense financially right now. I had a few moments of wishing we could just be like most people and do it anyway and just deal with the financial repercussions. 🙂 But I know in the long run, with the other things we have going this year that skipping this wedding really is the decision that makes the most sense. Still it’s disappointing! Hope you can knock out that $117,000 faster than you planned! 😉
Lindsey
Love it! God enabled us to pay off our mortgage after approximately 1 1/2 as well as do many fixer-upper things though we had only about $30,000 of debt. We did many of the things on your list including buying a foreclosure and working overtime. Our families were great! My parents gave us a substantial sum to help with the down payment (something that they had been faithfully saving since I was a small child because they wanted to be a blessing to us), his parents would come over 3-4 days a week for nearly 2 months to help us fix it up before we moved in, and we pinched pennies. We did a similar thing with our cell phones (the hubby only had a pay-as-go phone for several years since he had a long commute to work) and we poured every extra penny into the mortgage. We didn’t have a dishwasher for the first 3 1/2 years of marriage but the month after we payed off the mortgage, my husband went out and bought me one with the extra house payment. We’re now saving money for our next house which we’re dreaming of paying cash for. I’m not sure if that dream will come true or not but we’ll at least have 75% of the money needed so the mortgage would be very small and easy to pay off.
ThriftyFrugalMom
Wow, Lindsey, so fun to read your story! What a blessing to have your families be so involved with helping and supporting. It’s amazing how even that can help keep you motivated! And I love the part about your husband going and getting you a dishwasher as a “pay-off” gift of sorts. 🙂
We dream of paying cash for our next house too. But I don’t know if it will happen or not since my husband is doing the whole school thing. But like you, we hope that we will at least not need to take out a very big mortgage when that day comes. Right now we live in a fairly small house- it would be lovely in many ways to have more space, but it works. And I try to remind myself that the majority of the world would think our place is huge! 🙂
Blessings to you all as you continue to save and dream!
Hilogene Oltman
Congratulations and thank you for sharing your achievement. What a great accomplishment while you are still young!
About 6 years ago my husband and I decided we wanted to retire and needed a paid-off home. We owed $100,000 still. So that required 20,000 per year, I figured out how to set aside 5-10k a year, the rest was a mystery. But still we forged on, and after 5 years, it was paid off. Extra work, selling items and focus made it possible. Some years we got a bit behind, then we would catch up. I learned that even if I didn’t know how specifically we would achieve our goal, by putting our focus on it, we kept being surprised.
ThriftyFrugalMom
Thanks for sharing your storey, Hilogene! So inspiring- I just sat here and grinned as I read it. I think for us too that being focused was a huge part of what helped us do it. And I’ve seen that since in other goals too. Something about just having an idea of what you want to achieve and keeping that kind of in front of you as you go about your days helps. Congratulations on getting your home paid off!
Liv
Hi
Thank you for sharing this. Im kind of emotional now, ever since we married I wanted to get a house of my own but somehow one thing or other came and we always lived in rented apartments. Having a home of my own is a dream for me, hopefully one day it will come true.what a blessing for you to accomplish this at such a young age.your posts motivate me a lot, I am trying to cut money in all excessive spending we did , just one step at a time.god bless you !
ThriftyFrugalMom
Aw, Liv, if owning a house of your own is one of your dreams, then I hope that you will be able to do it someday- and hopefully soon! At the same time, I feel like I should make it clear that I know owning a home isn’t for everyone. Everyone’s goals and plans are different and we know some people who have no desire to own a home and prefer to simply rent because that works better for them and the life they feel called to. I think you probably understood that from what I wrote in my post, but just wanted to clarify that owning a home isn’t necessarily the benchmark of success, if that makes sense.
It humbles me to hear that you’re inspired and motivated by my posts. I’m grateful and blessed! And I love that you are trying to slowly reduce your excessive spending. You are so smart to work at it one step at a time- that makes it so much less overwhelming! Blessings to you too!
Cate M.
It did my heart good to read this post today 🙂 Thank you.
My husband and I are currently working on slaying the student loan debt monster so we haven’t even talked about paying off the house at this point. We too financed 100% of our house but we chose to buy at the absolute lowest end of our “budget”. I know that once we get rid of our pesky Sallie Mae bill we can tackle our mortgage head-on.
I love hearing success stories, especially on days when I really want to justify buying some new clothes or get an overpriced coffee!
ThriftyFrugalMom
Cate, you are welcome! So grateful that it blessed your heart today. Go you on slaying that student loan monster! Little by little you’ll get there and before you know it, you’ll be hitting the mortgage more too!
I have a coffee drink weakness too. One thing that helped me fight the splurges was to find ways like Swagbucks, to make a little bit extra. Occasionally I would take the $20 a month I earned there and use it to buy a splurge. Knowing that once in a while I allowed myself to do that made it so much easier to resist the temptation the rest of the time. I also started making myself regular homemade frappes a couple of years ago. Honestly, since then I have hardly been tempted to splurge on bought coffee drinks- which is saying a lot, because they are a HUGE weakness of mine. 😉 If you feel like trying to make your own frappes, you can find two of my recipes in the Beverage section under my Recipes. Of course you can create your own versions to suit your preferences, too!
Rachel B
I so agree that hearing others’ stories is encouraging. I love that you mentioned how you borrowed the full amount and it was the right decision for you, even though you wouldn’t recommend it to others, necessarily. I will be doing something similar soon, so I’m glad to hear you are happy with your choice!
I would add that when you’re trying to live very frugally, it helps a lot if you have friends or family doing the same. They understand your choices and are more willing to do frugal things together. Some of my friends I never see unless I’m willing to go out to eat with them, and I was told at one point (after going car-free) that “God doesn’t want you to have to live without a car,” which was so frustrating because I knew He did at the time! It’s just nice to have some friendships where you’re not always the weird one. 🙂
ThriftyFrugalMom
It worked out for us and honestly, I’m not sure we would have done it had we not had several people that we highly respect encourage us to do it. We also had private loans which was nice too. I know that’s not for everyone and that they can quickly get sticky, but my husband felt a lot better about it because he felt like if something happened to him and I got behind on paying off the mortgage, there would be some grace. Hope your experience is awesome too!
You are right that hanging out with other like minded people is very helpful! I should have made that my 11th point. 😉 We have a couple of friends that are very thrifty and get the whole saving money thing and that was always nice- because sometimes you do just feel like the weird one! Oh well, I’m sure there are people that probably feel like the weird one sometimes when they hang out with us tightwads too. 🙂