This January, I'm about to transfer from a community college to a 4-year university.

I've got four outstanding debts: Three credit cards and a private student loan that I'm paying the interest on while I'm in school (my aunt, who cosigned the loan, was supposed to pay the interest for me, but she passed away in January of 2009). The three credit cards are Capital One (C1 for short), Wal-Mart Credit Card (WM for short) and Dell Preferred Account (Dell for short). Let's abbreviate my private student loan as PSL.

My C1 is about $500 with a 14.99% interest rate. Right now, the minimum payment is $16.00.
My WM is $756 with no interest rate, since it is already in collections.
My Dell is $590 with a 29.99% interest rate. I've got automatic payments set up for $25.00 a month.
My PSL is several thousand dollars, but the interest is $29.00. My aunt cosigned the loan and offered to pay the interest while I was still in school, but she passed away last January, so now the debt is mine, all mine (oh goodie).

My new college is a four-year university, but it is very cheap. So cheap, in fact, that I don't even need to go outside my FAFSA to pay for it. Therefore, I can use my SSI (Supplemental Security Income) from the federal government to pay down my current debts (my FAFSA loans are future debts, not current ones). I get $674 a month for this, but I have a subscription to a service that costs $16 a month, and it is worth every single penny. I refuse to give it up, and I won't budge on it. This knocks my ACTUAL income down to $658 a month. Remember, since I am living in the dorm, with the school's food plan, monthly room and board is not an issue for me. I will also take the bus (100% free for students) to get to places I need to go, which means I can devote 100% of my SSI to debt-repayment.

In January, I plan on taking $500 out of my $658 and paying off my C1, all in one fell swoop. This will leave me with $158. I'll pay the $25.00 on Dell, and the $29.00 on my PSL, leaving me with $104. I'll pay $56.00 to WM, knocking it down to $700, and leaving me with $48.00 (I will not splurge on much of anything unless I can find a work-study or other part-time job). I'll also use my newly-paid-off C1 to get a $300 laptop for my college.

In February, I will pay the $25+$29 for Dell and PSL, knocking my remaining income to $604. I will pay $456 to WM, knocking my debt with them down to $300, and reducing my income to $148. I will then pay C1 $100 as a payment on the laptop. This will leave me with $48.

In March, paying $29 on my PSL will knock my income down to $629. I will pay $300 to WM, knocking it out once and for all, pay $100 on C1 (knocking the principal on that laptop down to $100), and pay $200 to Dell, knocking the Dell debt down to only $390 (hopefully less, since I'll be making payments on it in the meantime), leaving me with $29 in splurge money.

In April, I pay the $29.00 for PSL, and the remaining $390 on Dell. This will clear up my Dell debt in its entirety. I'll make one last payment to C1 of $125 to pay for the laptop (paying it off in three months shouldn't accrue more than 25% interest if the APR is only 15%). This will leave me with $114 with which to splurge.

In May, I pay $100 on my PSL (it's several thousand dollars; there's no way I'm paying it all off in one or two fell swoops, like my credit cards), and I will set aside $400 for the summer, leaving me with $158 for splurging. See, I'll be moving in with my parents, and, rather than do housework for them, I'll offer some kid $30 a week, every week for 12 weeks, to come by every Saturday and do the chores for me. I'll pay $40 for an ad in the paper for this. $360 is a lot of money for a child, or maybe a hispanic; if they've got the work visa, they can work for me.

June and July, I pay $200 a month on my PSL, paying lots of principal in the process. I will switch this $16 a month service that I love so much over to my C1, and pay it off every month. This will cost an extra buck, but since I'm rebuilding my credit, it's worth it. In August, when I return, when I return to school, I will knock that PSL payment down to $150 a month, and set aside $450 a month, giving me $57.00 a month in splurge money (remember, it's no longer $58.00 because I'm using my C1 to build credit) from the months of August until May 2011 (ten months if you count them up) for an out-of-pocket summer semester (since I'm changing my major mid-year, a summer semester will allow me to catch up with them). I will only need 9 credit hours to catch up (at least six hours will transfer from my community college, and many more will likely transfer as general electives), so $4,500 is enough for a summer semester at this university.

From June 2011 to October 2012, I will make sixteen $500 payments on my PSL, FINALLY paying that S.O.B. Off, with 13 months until graduation! I will have $157 each month to splurge with.

In October of 2012, I will start setting aside $600. October 2012 until I graduate in May 2013, I should be able to save up $4,800. I can spend $2,500 on a 5% down payment on a $50,000 house (houses DO come that cheap where I live). I can take the remaining $2,300 and buy a scooter (yes, not a car, but a scooter) for $1,800, a $450 prepaid insurance policy, and still have $50 to last me a few months worth of gasoline (scooters are very fuel efficient).

My splurge money will increase if I can find a work-study or other part-time job. If Obama's health care plan gets passed, the taxes will knock the net income for minimum wage to about $6.00 an hour. If I can work a measly 15 hours a week, that'll be a good $90 a week (not month, but week)

Now, I'm changing my major to education. I will become a high school math and science teacher (math and science teachers are in really high demand in my area, because the subjects are hard to teach, so it's stable work). This means that I will qualify for the Direct Student Consolidation program as well as the Student Loan Forgiveness program (basically, that means that, if I can work a public service field, such as teaching, then I can pay only 120 payments of only 15% of my dispensable income; I could provide links, but I need 15 posts to do so), so my student loan debts shouldn't be too overwhelming. In fact, they probably will not exceed $275 a month!

Do you like my plan to get out of debt and save money?