Student Loan Trap

How does $55,000+ in debt happen?  A nice chunk of it came from Student Loans. 

Ah, Student loans.  Such a sweet thing.  A young 19 year old college student is given a check for $5,000.  Do you know what you can buy with $5,000?  A lot of clothes, makeup, dinners out, DVDs, trips to the movie theater, and a little bit of education.   Did I mention that it was $5,000 per Semester?  Yes.  Per semester.  "Poor College Student"  what the heck does that mean?  I for one didn't have a clue. I drove a 3 year old Honda Accord, got my hair done, loved my manis and pedis.  Enjoyed going out to dinner and making frequent trips to the Mall.  Of course I worked.  I wasn't that stupid.  My paycheck paid for that trip to San Francisco, St Louis, and the $80 skirt that made me look so dang hot.  Oh yeah- I didn't work full time, I was going to school full time, silly. 

One more thing. . . did I mention that I went to a State College who's tuition was around $1500 a semester?  I graduated though.  My Bachelor's degree from a State College costs me $36,991.99 and counting.

$55,646.81

Our Current debt.  Now, to some people this may not seem like a huge amount of debt.  But when you have 2 young children, a hope to buy a house and a $30,000/year income, it starts to take it's toll on you.  After 10 years of carrying debt around, I would really like it to go away.  So I have created you.  My dear blog.  My accountability.  I will report to you how I got to $55,000 +, my current spendings, earnings, and payments of this monster of a thing called debt.  Wish me luck.