<prompt> Human: Hi, I am a recent college grad with about 15,000 in loans that I would like to pay off as soon as possible. Here is what I have to work with: -Income: 3,094month take-home pay -Rent all inclusive: 800month -Gas: 100month -Groceries: 300month LOANS: -9,000 in a Stafford Unsubsidized loan at a 6.8 rate that started accruing in 2012 I took out 7,500 in 2012 and its already accrued 1,200 -6,000 in a Perkins loan with a 5 rate but the interest is deferred until September 2015 so currently 0 until 0915 I was hoping you could help me figure out a budget with these numbers. From browsing PF, it seems I should set aside some money for savings as well as paying off my loans, but I would really like to see what those numbers would look like for me. I would also like to set aside a small amount maybe 150month for entertainmentgoing out etc. So what Im thinking for my budget is -Rent -Loans -Savings -Entertainment Could you guys please play with these numbers to maximize my loan payments realistically each month? Thank you so much! feel free to ask any questions regarding the info!  <response>: Here, I took a stab at creating a simple budget spreadsheet for you: LINKSome of those were just guesses. Looks like youll have over 1,000 surplus income each month unless im missing something.For the first few months, use all that surplus to build up an emergency fund of a few thousand dollars. Then start dumping it all towards your highest interest debt and kill it. Make an aggressive goal for yourself such as paying off all debt in 1.5 years. EDIT: Its amazing what a stark difference your situation is compared to people that come in here in the exact same spot, but add on a 450 car payment, 10k of credit card debt, and 400 more in rentutilities. 