Wow. That's kind of a long story I guess. We bought our house when we were engaged for $129,900 (1997-- houses were cheaper then!) We had some money because my husband was the son of a faculty member and I got a full scholarship (so we still had the money we'd be saving our whole lives after college). The wedding wasn't for another year, so I lived with my parents and Eric lived with 3 roommates (4 bedroom house). The roommates paid $750 a month (total) and I helped (a little) too, but I was student teaching, so I only helped out of savings. After we got married we had a young couple live in our basement. They paid $350 a month. When I got a teaching job we wanted to continue to "live on one income", so we took the vast majority of my income and applied it to extra mortgage payments ($1400 a month extra + $1250 on a 15 year fixed at 7.25% = $2650 a month) Next thing you know, no more mortgage
That's the method I guess