FML. Student Loans

A few weeks ago I got mail stating that it was time for us to send in our last years proof on income so they could decide how much they were going to charge us monthly for our student loans.

Man, did that get me super depressed and in a slump.

Student loans SUCK! 

CT and I could afford a nice house for the amount we have in student loans. 

 It really is so depressing.

CT and I went to a private school, where we were both student-athletes and paying 24 thousand dollars a year.

 

CT went 4.5 years and I went 4 years. 

We had a few scholarships but not near enough to cover full tuition. 

You can do the math. It's not pretty.

 

Good ole Friends University. 

It really was a great school: nice facilities, small class sizes, attention needed from teachers. Looking back I did love it, but if hind sight was 20/20 I definitely should have went to Juco for two years getting all my prerequisites out of the way before going to Friends. 

After really looking into what all we owed, and seeing what our monthly payments were going to be, I came to the conclusion that we really need to start budgeting.

And adding to it, I figured out how much we spend on eating out each month. For the past 5 months - anywhere from $300-$600. 

How awful and eye opening that was.

It makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about all that money we wasted. 

I have heard good things about the Dave Ramsey debt reduction program. 

Anyone had an experience using it? 

I don't know much about it other then it's kind of like a cash envelope system. When the money is gone you don't get any more until next month. 

We are going to start doing that for entertainment, eating out, and lunch money for work. 

Other things we are going to start doing to help us save some money:

1. Start shopping for Christmas and Birthday in the off months and start doing DIY gifts.

 I have a gift section started hidden in my new buffet table. I recently hit up the semi-annual bath and body works sale. 

Most everything was 75% off. 

You can't beat that! 

I got a bunch of goodies and saved lots of money. 

2. Use coupons.

 For any and everything.

3. Meal plan so I don't make frequent stops at the grocery store. 

 I have gotten a lot better at this but there is still room for improvement.

4. Plan better/cheaper date nights 

 Picnics, farmers market/flee market trips, batting cages.

Those a just a few ideas of mine. 

What do you do to save money? 

I haven't quite been able to talk the husband into down grading our cable package . =/ 

I doubt that will ever happen.