Phenomenon and On

So this is sort of a rant, sort of complaining, sort of explaining my situation. It's frustrating and confusing, hence the random post title. Read on after the jump
So I am finally attempting to further my education as of September, and the whole mess of getting everything organized to do so is about as frustrating as any one thing I've ever attempted in my short life.

First up was choosing a school, I applied to the U of A since it's in Edmonton and I'd be close to family, and I applied to Mount Royal U for pretty well the opposite reason. It's in Calgary, where I have no family, and only know a few people, it's sort of a way to start over.

I got accepted to Mount Royal and was obviously very excited about the prospect of moving away from home and to the big city. My euphoria however, was short lived. The reality of the scope of what I'm attempting quickly put a damper on my high spirits, and made me realize that this is going to be a challenge from day 1 until I graduate.

Obviously there's a lot to consider whenever you're moving, in this situation even more so. Because I won't know where I'm living until shortly before I move, and because my mother is selling her house sometime after I go to school, I basically have to get rid of everything I'm not taking with me to school. This means trying to sell everything with some worth, and finding new homes for the things that don't have any value.

It also means selling my car. This isn't a huge deal as it's just one more material thing, but it is greatly complicated by the fact that I owe more on it than what I am likely to get in a sale for it right now. The reason I have to sell it is that with my car payment and insurance combined, it costs me almost $800 a month to own a vehicle, and thats without factoring in for gas and maintenance.

Damn insurance rates, 3 years driving this car without missing a payment, with only 1 speeding ticket, and zero at fault accidents. Yet I pay $360/month to insure it. Thats after a 10% discount for having Onstar! So basically I have a few options, hope someone will pay what I owe for it, convince a family member to buy it off of me and insure it, but still have me make the payments, or attempt to pay it down with money from my summer job to where I can get what I owe on it.

Now my goal is to get rid of it, buy a beater that will cost like $80/month to insure, and only use that to get around when public transport and bumming rides fails. If I have to pay it down to get what I owe on it, however, that would cut into my goal for savings for the year. As I had hoped to have money to pay my bills and food, and just work part time for spending money, my estimate is I could do just that if I save up $10,000 by September.

So basically this is the bind that I'm in. Obviously something will get figured out in the end, but until it does get figured out it's going to be a major stress point.

-Onward and Upward!