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When making our monthly mortgage payment, I always round up.

I use a zero-based budget to manage our household finances.

When calculating the allocation for the mortgage payment category – I round up to the nearest 100′s place.

I do this, because I like easy-to-do math.  This works in our situation, because our payment ends with 60.12.  So, rounding up adds approximately $40 to our monthly payment.  If our payment ended with, say, 98.16, I’d round past the nearest 100′s place, and add an amount that felt comfortable within our budget.  And, if our payment ended with, say, 11.92, I might round up to the nearest fifty, and not go all the way to the next 100.  Clear as mud?  Basically, I’m adding an amount to my mortgage payment, each month, consistently.

Are you working hard to get out of consumer debt? Awesome! Check out these 10 Quick Tips – ways to decrease spending, increase savings, and speed up your debt reduction -

Early and Often

After making regular monthly payments on all accounts, make extra principal-only payments as soon – and as often – as you can. This will help to decrease your average daily balance – and lower monthly interest charges!

Sell, Sell, Sell

Use eBay, Craigslist, Facebook, or have a yard sale, and sell something – or lots of somethings – this week. Use that money pay down debt. I find that kids’ clothing is a great seller on eBay.

Sort and Roll

My family and I have lived in our current home for 4 years.

We are working hard to payoff our 15-year, conventional mortgage.

I keep track of our progress using a simple spreadsheet and pie chart.  This provides motivation to keep going, especially when we are tempted to feel frustrated with our progress.

Here’s a chart with details for our current progress -

The percentages above represent the amount of our mortgage we have paid – 23.72% – and the amount we still owe – 76.28%.

Each month, we make our scheduled mortgage payment, plus an additional principal-only payment.

We keep chipping away, month-after-month.  We have already shaved 6 months off of the length of our mortgage.

My son and I have recently started collecting coins.

Several months ago, my son received an Electronic Piggy Bank: Digital Counting Money Coin Jar with LCD Display as a gift.  After the jar was filled with pennies, he decided that he wanted to deposit his money in his savings account.

As we were sorting through the coins, in preparation for our trip to the bank, I noticed a few “wheat-back” pennies.  This lead to a discussion about the different types of pennies – which lead to google-searches for information about types of quarters, nickels, and dimes.

My son was hooked.  We were soon collecting coins.