This is a guest post from FabulouslyBrokeIntheCity.  She writes a fun fashion and finance blog, as a single twenty-something in Canada.  I hope you enjoy her story.

How I racked up so much debt ($53,500) in student loans

There were a couple of contributing factors to my large amount of student debt upon graduation.

Parents reneged on promise
The first one was that my parents promised that they’d be able to give me at least $10,000 upon graduation to go towards student loans. Never happened. They pretended that they had never made the promise and that was the end of that.

Stayed in residence first year

In hindsight, this was not such a hot idea. It may have been a better idea to have stayed at home first year, and not paid all that cash for having meals already prepared for you at set times (like in a buffet), having a maid come by bi-weekly to clean the bathrooms and vacuum, etc. It isn’t as fancy as what you’re imagining, (think Motel 6) but had I lived on my own in an apartment off campus, and cooked and cleaned, I would’ve probably saved a bundle and had been happier.

I originally decided to go into residence because I wanted to connect with other students of my own age and kind of feel like I was part of the University experience, which is especially important in first year. But if I had gotten roommates that would’ve been much better than who I got stuck with in residence, sharing a room with me. Blech.

In short, I barely connected with any students (bit of a stick up residence and/or some were only 16 years old in University, while I was at the ripe ol’ age of 19), and quite frankly, I didn’t make any good, solid friends because I wasn’t from a certain high school and I didn’t already know them before.

I actually made all of my best friends when I entered business school because we were all so much alike that we just clicked. Plus, we worked together like beasts in a cage on projects – which really gives you the chance to know the other person intimately.

- $15,0000 (including tuition for the year that was $5000)

Switched majors in the summer and decided to go to business school

This killed me because when I switched majors, I had to beef up my summer courses with the pre-requisites that I needed to even get into business school. So I spent another $5000 or so to take those courses and to really ace ‘em in the summer.

• $5000 (Second year courses for my major)
• $2000 (taking extra courses not on the curriculum for another major)
• $8000 (Living for one year alone)

Got into business school

This is where the majority of my debt was accumulated. I lived on my own, had a couple of jobs that kind of helped out, but the tuition and books, plus the mandatory equipment (laptop, backpack to carry all my stuff), ended up killing me. Along with the new wardrobe I needed to buy for interviews (suits), which.. by the way, was also a waste of money for me because I ended up not wearing a suit to work as my first job. I was in jeans and a sweater.

• $40,000 (Tuition)
• $10,000 (Books)
• $16,000 (Living for 2 years alone)
• $2500 (Laptop and bag)
• $500 (Wardrobe craziness)

GRAND TOTAL: $99,000 in potential debt
ACTUAL TOTAL: $53,500 in debt (worked a full-time job or two, had some part-time jobs, etc)
That is basically how I ended up $53,500 In debt, and it could’ve been a hell of a lot more had I not worked. My degree is actually worth about $99,000 in total.

As of mid-2008, I finally cleared about $38,500 by being extremely frugal, careful with my money, putting every penny towards debt and being extremely diligent about my spending habits.

I started making my own lunches (which I had kind of done before), not drinking as much Starbucks as I used to, and put a total ban on all unnecessary clothing and accessory purchases (my biggest weaknesses). I also had a dangerously low Emergency Fund at $1000, but that was because I knew I couldn’t be fired from my job because they needed me too much and I was in a middle of a project. But once I knew I wanted to quit my job, I ramped up the savings to $5000 and calculated that I’d be able to live about 2-3 months without working if need be.

Once I needed to get a job (if it things didn’t pan out and I was still unemployed), I would’ve joined another corporation in the mean time just so my resume wouldn’t have large gaps in it.

Now with just $15,000 left to go (actually, $13,500 if you want to be more accurate), the end is in sight and now I can concentrate on saving and building my net worth.

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Congratulations to Fabulously Broke on quickly moving to become debt free!