I'm 22, and I definitely worry about what I'm going to do when I'm 100% "on my own" and not financially supported by my parents in any way. O.o I'm getting married in August, so I'll be off my mom's car and health insurance, and her phone plan. I'm super concerned about affording those things on my own. Right now it feels like there's not much left beyond rent and food. I'd be ok with giving up my phone, but that's probably not an option for work and having to have communication with my partner when we're sharing a car and need to coordinate picking each other up. If we lived in a place with public transportation, I might be able to give up my car. But here, without a car I'm not going to be able to have a job or go to school. :P I'll have to see how much my medication costs without insurance and see if I can get on medicaid. O.o

I think that the hardest thing for me is that this is going to be my first real experience with being poor. Not just regular college student "maybe I shouldn't eat out or buy any clothes this semester" but actual "will I be able to afford my medication every month, and how much will we have for food" poor. We've looked at the cost of living and how much each of us can make, and it really looks like we're going to have barely enough for rent every month, assuming neither of us takes a day off or has work telling us they don't need us. (That's what's happening to me a lot right now. A family I'm scheduled for 20 hours with usually gives me around 4-8.)

On top of all of that, we somehow have to come up with $14,000 each every year for tuition. I don't think we're even making $14,000 a year combined.