decisions, decisions

    Yes, I know. I need to actually do something if I want to have a new job. Please don't point that out to me.
     Within the last two months, I seem to have sprung a leak, financially. The trickling began in December, turned into a slushy stream in January, and as of Sunday was a full-fledged, out-of-control flood.
     It's decision time. I'm roughly 3 1/2 years from the end of the tunnel, student loan-wise. That means I've been paying on them for...almost 7 years. (fuck) I have loans from two servicers. The combined payments are very nearly equal to my rent. I cannot (literally, cannot) go on for one more month without changing something. I'm not moving, so I either need more income, or I need to stop eating (or using utilities), or I need to reduce my student loan payments.
     So I once again looked into consolidation. I've resisted it up to now because each servicer with which I work has unique benefits that I am reluctant to lose. And there are individual loans that will cease to be profitable for me, credit-wise, if I consolidate (though they are too insignificant to leave out if I am forced to consolidate). I plugged my 13 separate loans, of two different types, with three different interest rates, from the two servicers, into the consolidation calculators on the websites of my servicers. The results were disheartening.
     My minimum monthly payment will be significantly decreased. By which I mean diminished by approximately 80%.
     The life of the loans will increase to at least ten years. Interest will increase by nearly the equivalent of the current payoff balance with one servicer.
     I need to decide, then, if my (what I hope is) short-term cash-flow problem is significant enough that I literally need to mortgage my future to assuage it. I realize that prepayment is always an option with student loans, but there is something of an ideological cowboy within me, wanting to do it right the first time and not have to muddle with the system in order to get this over by June-ish of 2009.
     I almost wish that I hadn't decided against that crappy little basement apartment, the one that cost about $200 less than this one. Would I have actually saved that extra money, used it toward something useful? Or would I still be the same person, making the same choices, but living in a shitty little basement that I really didn't like but thought was just the best that I deserved?
     Bah. Time to gather my notes for tomorrow's SuperCollosalExtravaganzaMeeting and go to sleep. My shoulder is aching and my brain will be there, too, if I'm not careful.
     G'night.