Now that I have committed to saving the money as I receive as gifts and earmarking it for the house, I have to make it a reality.

I have opened another ING account and called it Mortgage Pay Off Fund.  Appropriate I think.  I opened it by taking $50 out of my emergency fund.  Don’t worry, I had the cushion to do so.

All gift money – checks and cash – will be deposited into my non-primary checking account and then transfered into my ING account.

How often will I move the money back into my checking account to make an additional principle payment?  I don’t know yet.  I realize that I am making less interest in my savings account than I am paying on the interest rate on my house.  Therefore, it makes more sense to do it more often than not.  Every little bit helps, right?  But as for actually frequency, I am not committing myself quite yet.