Families, Student Loans, and Budgets

[dentonal]

I just sat down with my wife to figure out our budget for 2008. I will be starting dental school this July, and so we have had to figure out how to budget for something we've never been through. My wife will teach violin lessons while I go to school, but that income doesn't amount to more than $3-4K per year. She prefers to stay home with our kids. We would like advice from those who have experienced the same thing (i.e., people who have one or more kids, are married, and living on a student-loan budget).

In working through this budget we used the budget worksheets found on my school-of-choice's website for freshman during this (current) school year. I'm not a frivilous spender; for example, we decided that we wouldn't spend more than $20/month on dining out. Additionally, I was planning on riding my bike to school so my wife can use our one car.

As I understand the student-loan budget, each school's board of trustees creates an average and reasonable expense chart for the individual student. The amounts decided by the board of trustees is the maximum each student can borrow from the Federal Government. If more money is needed, I understand that students have to go to a bank or other source for additional funding.

Where we stand right now, we will need $6,000 beyond our student loans just to live! What does everyone do?

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[pmantz]

I just sat down with my wife to figure out our budget for 2008. I will be starting dental school this July, and so we have had to figure out how to budget for something we've never been through. My wife will teach violin lessons while I go to school, but that income doesn't amount to more than $3-4K per year. She prefers to stay home with our kids. We would like advice from those who have experienced the same thing (i.e., people who have one or more kids, are married, and living on a student-loan budget).

In working through this budget we used the budget worksheets found on my school-of-choice's website for freshman during this (current) school year. I'm not a frivilous spender; for example, we decided that we wouldn't spend more than $20/month on dining out. Additionally, I was planning on riding my bike to school so my wife can use our one car.

As I understand the student-loan budget, each school's board of trustees creates an average and reasonable expense chart for the individual student. The amounts decided by the board of trustees is the maximum each student can borrow from the Federal Government. If more money is needed, I understand that students have to go to a bank or other source for additional funding.

Where we stand right now, we will need $6,000 beyond our student loans just to live! What does everyone do?

Either get more loans or have your wife get a job, also look into state assistance.

 

[MSDMD]

I have a wife and 2 kids. I am a D3 now. My wife worked the first year and a half of school but stayed home after our second child was born. We were doing ok when she was working, but now we have pretty much used up our savings and the little bit of retirement I had started before school in a ROTH (this can be taken out early penalty free for education expenses, in case you have one). We still will run out of cash again likely before the next financial aid check comes in for the summer in which case we will likely have to get some sort of private loan (Sallie Mae offers this type of loan, among others). You have to make sure that these type of loans are the type where the money comes straight to you, not routed through the financial aid office, as they will not approve further borrowing. It is hard, but it is worth it if your wife wants to stay home with the kids. If your wife is like mine, she has made a lot of sacrifices along me for me to return to school. We will make a good income one day, and we will be able to pay the loans back, but we can't get this time back with our kids. I'm not advocating borrowing too much, I wish I didn't have to borrow so much, but I am not too awful worried about it in the long run.

 

[chevyiiguy]

Do you have to start paying the Sallie Mae loans back right away or are they deferred like a student loan?