Decisions have been made. Not all completely by me. I will be leaving my second job sometime this summer. This means I will need to start paying about $1,000 or more in rent and utilities. This also means about $1,300 or so less money coming in each month…so I’m down about $2,300 every month. Remember that $2,500 I was paying every month toward my student loans? Say goodbye to that. And about $1,000 of that is my minimum payments, so I need keep some of it, and make cuts elsewhere.
It’s looking like I may move with my gentleman friend into an apartment owned by one of our mutual friends. And my dog is coming (back from my mom’s)! It’s about a mile from a closer train station, so I’ll save some in my train pass, and parking (by walking or getting dropped off) and gas. Being closer to family will mean less gas use too driving back and forth for non-work purposes. I think food needs to be where most of my cuts are made. And savings. Sigh.
But my life should get markedly better. Only two hours instead of four in commute time! Spending time with the man! Sleeping in more! Minimal responsibilities when I get home for the night! Being home means it’s easier to make my own dinners and lunches, and enjoy the company of my friends! Playing with babies!
It may be rough going for a year or so, but the man should be graduating after a year, then we’ll have a better idea of where we want to settle down more permanently. After making dents in my student loans for the last year it will be hard to see virtually no progress for a full year, but I’m under the amount I had on initial principal. And my 2014 tax return should be awesome…in a year…. but now that I have a permanent job, I can certainly get by. We’ll hope for a bonus next year too.
So expect this blog to move over from big hits to my debts, to attempts to become more frugal so I can keep up with my minimums plusmaybealittlebit. I’ll be saving the next few months or so, to make sure I have a good buffer for when I have higher expenses, but I’m still hopeful that I can pay off UG3 in a few months (balance $1,112), and hopefully about half of UG4 ($3,318). Maybe the rest of the undergrad loans can go next year. I guess we’ll see!
blonderbetterfasterstronger 
Good luck and Congrats on the move!