Is this why my food budget is out of control? For all this time, I’ve been buying and eating actual food. How did I not know about these rations?! Sigh. Yet again, I didn’t do the research to learn about these options ahead of time. Mmmm. And it looks like there are other special flavors too – Resentment, Bitterness, and Despair!
Hmmm. So if you subsist on 1.5 noodles a day cooked in your own tears, you’ll have just enough strength to sit upright in a cubicle for 10 hours a day. Throw an extra 1/2 noodle in there and you can bring on the second job to pay your debt faster. More money for them. For you… Well, who cares about you.
See? It’s a win-win all the way around! I need to look into this…
I’m enjoying my long weekend, but want to document my latest payment. I sent in a payment of $1,018.34 (which covers accrued interest) to bring my balance down from $103,834 to $103,000. At times like this, things seem to move so slowly. It feels like nothing is changing. Where is all my money going?!
Sigh. I just have to stay the course.
On a positive note, I finally received the official letters, actually pdfs, from my previous student loan servicer verifying that my debt with them is indeed paid-in-full! I will save and store digital and paper versions of these documents forever and ever as proof. Woot!
If you have a long weekend, enjoy it!
If you don’t have a long weekend, enjoy it!
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“Debtor’s prison is real, and opportunity cost is a bitch.” (DDSW)
Double Debt Single Woman 
Long weekend is almost over, but I’ve managed to enjoy most of it. I hope your experience was as good or better. 🙂
Yes, stay the course. It’s a deep hole, but it’s getting smaller by every two weeks. Yes, the margin of error is uncomfortably thin, but you can do this. If you need help, ask for it. In training for a marathon (which is still in progress with 4+ months to go), I’ve really had to curb my impatience and think big picture. You are/were when you wrote this post at a point when you’ve run a solid 8 miles (out of a 100 ultra-marathon miles) and could use some water and an energy supplement. A small boost to keep you on track is really what’s needed even if it feels like you should be closing in on the finish line for your legs are getting tired. What could do the trick? A delicious meal? A movie at the theater? A local show? A manicure? A new hair color? Treat yourself to that, get some good sleep, and keep shining at this fight.
If it means anything, my debt is just under $37,000 now, and only because I used my tax return to reduce it by a little over $1200, hoping it would be better spent there than in savings. My repayment pace on the other hand is prohibitively slow, and if I think every day of how at this pace I have 12 more years of payments, I will jump from the roof of my building. Instead, I think of it as a cost to my chance at a middle class lifestyle in a country I came to as a teenager with two suitcases, and move on with life pretending that money was never available to me to begin with. Yes, with $280 as minimum monthly payment, the sacrifice to daily life is not nearly as limiting as is $2000+, but the way you are going, you will have a choice in 2.5 years (when your debt catches up with mine) to say: “I’d like to reduce my payment amount to $500/month for a little while and do something else with the money.” I am nearly certain that your financial inst. will accept that arrangement. If they don’t, other places will, given your history of payments and magnitude of loan then. The interest penalty will not be as big, and depending on how your life unfolds at the time, the reduction will enable greater freedom for worthier pursuits.
Take good care.
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Yes, thank you! And good for you for getting below $37K even if it feels sssllloooowww! Ha! I know the feeling. Yeah, my new student loan servicer is flexible and would be open to re-financing with me down the road once my balance is lower. The repayment pace I’m on will not be easy to sustain, but I need to hit this debt as much as I can right now, while my housing expenses are low. I think I’ve said this before, Czanclus, but you should start your own blog. You always have a great running related metaphor that helps to frame a debt repayment situation. 🙂
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I LOVE this post! Although sadly, it hits way too close to home for me as well. Drowning in student load debt and miserable because of it. But this post really made me laugh – thank you for that!
I just want to tell you that I really appreciate your blog and your posts. I don’t comment very much but I’ll try to change that because you’re helping a lot of people but you may not know it. I try to read a lot of other “financial blogs” for “motivation” but some days it’s really hard to read about people who “Save 70% of their huge income!” “Never had to take on any debt in their whole lives”! “Were lucky enough to get jobs that they liked that paid well”! Can now “afford” to live their dream because they “managed” their finances! Yet they’ve never had to struggle to pay their bills, never lived alone and had all the extra expenses that come with it, and never had life bite them in the a$$ and derail their “financial plans”. Yeah – sometimes it’s not very helpful reading that when you’re drowning in debt.
So THANK YOU for sharing your struggle. I’m sorry you’re struggling, but in the end, it’s a lot more helpful to people like me to hear about the struggle instead of hearing from “financial experts” who never had to struggle at all.
Hang in there!
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“I try to read a lot of other “financial blogs” for “motivation” but some days it’s really hard to read about people who “Save 70% of their huge income!” “Never had to take on any debt in their whole lives”! “Were lucky enough to get jobs that they liked that paid well”! Can now “afford” to live their dream because they “managed” their finances! Yet they’ve never had to struggle to pay their bills, never lived alone and had all the extra expenses that come with it, and never had life bite them in the a$$ and derail their “financial plans”.”
So much this. Of course good choices, frugal living and all of that matters, Absolutely. And we must take responsibility for our lives. But privilige of all kinds matter sooooo much too. Sometimes people get sick and stay sick for years. Maybe people have had and still have difficult experiences (messed up family dynamics, trauma, racism, sexism, bullying), and it requires a lot of energy and time and money to deal with the lingering effects. Maybe people have dyslexia and it takes them a lot more time to get through course materials in college than other people, so they can’t take on a part time job. And so on.
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Yes. That’s true, Maria. Some say that life is a race. But if you imagine an Olympic track, we don’t all start at the same starting point. A few fortunate people start one yard from the finishing line, while others start out in the parking lot. Blame czanclus for that bad running metaphor of mine. 😛 But you are right, there should be more tolerance for why people end up in debt and less finger pointing. More support, and less judgement.
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Hi Vickie! Thank you for reading. Well, I can relate. Misery loves company! Sometimes all you can do is find a way to laugh about it. Yeah, a lot of the articles I see about high (six figure) debt payoffs are typically about couples paying the debt down together. One person’s salary supports a relatively comfortable life and other person’s salary goes to pay down the debt. That’s great if someone has that situation, but I don’t have that luxury. Living in a rented room with roommates and not having my own place = not fun. Not having a car = not fun. But those are some of the sacrifices that I can make right now and I realize that I’m fortunate to have those options. We’re all different so it’s good to have variety in the personal finance blogosphere. I’m glad that my keyboard pawing is at least a little entertaining and not totally depressing. Best of luck with your debt repayment. 🙂
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I adored my long weekend even though it is not clear when I am working again. Helped my girlfriend clean her place. Helped a friend unpack. Free for me and helped them immensely. Best of many worlds.
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Hey, ZJ! Good for you being a good samaritan. 🙂 Congrats on your net worth gains. Hang in there. Another gig will come along.
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