I have spent most of the day at work thinking about money! I do this alot but as its nearly the start of the new year, I gave it more thought as I am just getting more and more frustrated with my money situation and I just feel I am getting no where with paying off the loans. I can’t quite believe that 2 and half years after leaving university, I still have this much debt. I can’t see that I will ever pay off my student loan. Because of the interest and the fact I wasn’t paying it for a year as I didn’t have a permenant job, means that I still owe the £12,500 that I started with, and I am paying such a small amount back in my wages every month, I am not getting anywhere! In saying this, the student loan is the least of my problems as it is so insignificant (although some people don’t think so) and can basically be ignored anyway! Yay! My other loans are getting me down. I have a fixed loan with Lloyds bank and I got it back in 2001 when I finsihed university as I had so many credit card debts and overdrafts. I feel this loan is going down so slowly and is costing too much so I have come up with a plan to pay it off and owe the money to my Grandparents instead, but I can manage to pay off £600 of it by next month, plus the £240 it will take from my bank account anyway so I won’t need to borrow too much from them! I can pay them back at £200 for 9 months meaning I will have paid it off by the end of the 2004! Yay! As for my other loan, I only have £2500 left on that now and will continue to pay £100 a month until the end 0f 2004 then start paying £300 a month and then it will be paid off! It will all be a money struggle in the mean time and I am worried that I am not going to be able to afford living in Bath very well when we move there in March as I know it will be more expensive than here but hopefully once I have paid off the Lloyds loan and start paying my Grandparents instead, I will have a bit more spare cash. I can’t believe money can be this difficult. Spending £10 a month on food is not good (and I can’t believe some people moan about having no money and then shop in Marks and Spencer for their food! They just have no idea what debt is about!), but I have £30 for next month so I might be able to eat a bit more!!! Asda here we come!

I finally feel I might be getting somewhere and may achieve an earlier date than planned for paying off my loans! I was aiming for August 2005! Fingers crossed as I cannot continue living with all these debts, it is affecting our chances of getting a mortgage even so the quicker I can pay it off the better!