Er'body and their mother's cousin's dog toto wants my money.

This is definitely how I am feeling right now.

The day began well enough...I got up, fairly late in the morning, completed my m.y.s.t.e.r.y shops for the day (this was a very good day and I completed about seven shops, in tow hours, for approximately $125.00) and arrived to work shortly thereafter. I could not have been at work more than five minutes when my cell phone starts ringing. I hear, "Please hold for an important call from AES." I proceed to hold and am finally connected to a gentleman who reminds me that my loans are entering their repayment period. He then ask if I am going to be able to make the payment for this month. I told him that I made a payment last month (it was only interest) and I was aware that the loans were leaving the grace period and I was prepared to make the payment. He wanted to continue talking to me about a reduction in my interest rates (read: .25%) if I decided to enroll in ach. I told him no thank you and hung up the phone (now that I am getting my ish together, I like to be in control of my money). I then proceeded to log in online to my AES account, as I did not believe that they came out of grace until August and didn't know what my payment amount would be. After logging I was shocked to find out that my payment was for $375.00 and was due on the 22nd of July. As in NINETEEN days from now, and the day after I have to pay the federal gub'ment $132.00 for my federal student loans.

I immediately broke out into a cold sweat and began trying to crunch the numbers in my head to see if this was going to be possible. While crunching the numbers I decided to log into my e-mail account and was greeted with a message from the house where I lived this past spring. Apparently, there was a mistake in the bursar billing and the charges were reversed. They wanted to know my current mailing address so they could send me a bill; the bill will be to the tune of $6000.00! I also had notice from my soon to be Alma matter letting me know that my grace period for them had also ended and that I owed them $60.00 ever month beginning on August 1st.

At this point, my head was spinning, I felt faint and I had to sit down.

This lasted for all about five minutes before the wheels began to turn, I got out my calculator and my calendar and started crunching the numbers again.

Since I want to aggressively pay off the student loans anyway, I will (Lord willing) continue to make the payments on all of the student loans, in full, for July and August. In September, when I am registered as a full time student again, I will defer all of my loans, still continuing to pay the $60 I owe my University in full, the $131.00 I owe the gub'ment in full and as much as possible on the AES balance. (There is something that my change this plan of repayment, as my gub'ment loans may be paid off very shortly, however, I will discuss this possibility in a later post.) The AES balance will continue to be paid after the Rank of America balance as paying off my dwindling credit card debt remains my top priority.