Frustrated!

Yup that pretty much sums it up.

In December I will be applying for the social work program. I have been planning everything (way in advance because that's how I tick). I'm more than a little worried that I can't afford to go back to school. Of course the whole point of going back to school is so I can get a better job. What a real kick in the pants it is to realize that I need to get the better paying job first.

The program is through distance education, which is good because it allows me to study while still working 2 jobs. I just realized that this means I will be repaying student loans and paying tuition at the same time! I SO cannot afford to do that!

How am I going to swing this? I have decided that my vacation/big purchase fund will be re-purposed. If I sacrifice a vacation next summer [no Hong Kong :( ] and don't buy anything out of the ordinary (like snow tires or a couch) I think I should have almost enough for tuition. My other plan of attack is to have a food budget. I don't know how much I currently spend on food/Starbucks, but I think it's probably too much. Because I have to eat gluten-free, I allowed myself to buy $7 loafs of bread. Not anymore. I have set a new limit $50 per week. Is this manageable? $200 per month sounds like a lot....

Having read online, I might be able to drop the budget lower, but I'm not willing to eat garbage just because it's cheap. People living on Food Stamps get $21 per week. Having read the blog experiments trying to survive on that, I know that's too extreme.