How we Saved 40k In less than a year

In 2020, during the pandemic’s beginning, my husband and I were forced to make some hard decisions. After spending an enormous amount of time in the house due to the lockdown, we decided to take on various projects around the house, starting with the inside of our home. We purchased furniture and new decor items to add character to the space. We even took on a DIY project of a dining room table and chairs that we found at the thrift store. But none of this could help us get over the fact that our home was too small. So, we decided that the best thing to do would be to sell our home.

Home Sweet Home!

My husband and I married in 2018 and the very next day we moved into our first apartment together. After just three months of living in our apartment, we noticed some things that we just could not live with. We hired a Real Estate Agent, who then pointed us to a mortgage lender who had us preapproved for a mortgage loan in no time. We were ecstatic, to say the least, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. Now that the hard part was out of the way we had to hit the ground running to find the perfect starter home for our little family of two. In just 2 short weeks after a few denied contracts we found our dream home. A two-bedroom, three-story townhome, not too far from our jobs at the time. We were on cloud nine.

And then there were three…

After just two short days of enjoying our new home, we added a furry friend to our space. Yes, you read that right we went out and purchased a new puppy. For anyone reading this, I would hugely advise against this. Nevertheless, we love our pup and wouldn’t trade her for the world. Now that two became three we had to find the perfect spot for her to sleep and because I’m a neat freak this was no easy task. Eventually, we found a spot for her in the new house and life was good.

More Space?

That was until March 2020 when the entire world shut down. Due to the threat of a deadly virus, the state of Virginia issued a lockdown. Luckily for us, our jobs allowed us to work from home. With countless hours spent inside, we slowly started to pick apart our space, or the lack thereof. We quickly realized that the money we were spending on our current mortgage plus the monthly HOA fees could actually afford us a much larger space. So, after a month of talking amongst each other, we listed our home for sale. Just under a month later our home sold just above the asking price.

You might be thinking well of course you were able to save 40k, you sold a home! But that’s not where the story ends you see we didn’t make anything off of the sale of our first home. With Agent’s fees and closing costs factored in we literally broke even, there was no check to cash after we left the closing table. Moreover, we were back to square one. Now that we no longer had a mortgage we started actively saving our money to pay off debt and save for a down payment for our next home. During this time we stayed with family and contributed to their household. I created a budget sheet to help keep track of debts as well as expenses, this helped us significantly and was the driving tool for our saving 40k in just 8 months.

Discipline, Hardwork, Patience

This was not an easy feat and took a lot of discipline. Me and my husband decided the amount of money we personally needed for our daily lives. We held monthly meetings to go over our budget and made no exceptions when it came to our spending. No frequent eating out, no spontaneous buys, and no vacations during the duration of our debt payoff plan. We sold my husband’s 2015 Hyundai Genesis Coupe to cut down to only one car payment. We agreed this was best since we both worked from home and did not need two cars.

After just eight months of strict budgeting, we paid off my car, and all of our credit card debt, as well as saved 20k for our downpayment and closing costs on our next home.