Insurance is SO Expensive!

[Lindsey]

Tuition in Canada is very expensive for university. I took two years at university and then 2 and a half years at a tech college. I believe tuition at the university was about $5000 a year, and for my two and a half years at tech school the current charge is $9416 total. On top of that I spent about $1000-2000 on books per year.
Some students can get student loans from the government, but as I found out they are very stringent on the qualifications. They take into account if you own a vehicle (which I did), how much money you will be making from a part-time job, how much money your parents make. They do NOT take into consideration how much debt your parents have or their payments or anything. When I went to university straight out of high school, my parents were still paying off their house, a truck because their old one broke down, and a new quad that my dad had just got for hunting. They couldn't afford to put me through school so I was counting on the student loan I applied for. When it was time to pay tuition I still hadn't heard back so my parents and I both paid and I used up all the money I had been saving from my job since I was 16. About a month later I got a letter saying I didn't qualify because my parents made enough money that they should be able to support me. I probably cried for the whole day. Then I found out about a student line of credit from a bank, so that's what I used.
So I maxed out my line of credit 4 months before my course ended, and that was mostly with living costs because I used my summer job money to pay tuition. My parents struggled to help me through that, and now I'm $40,000 in debt and I'm going to be paying that off for 15 years!
My experience has taught me I'm definitely starting education funds as soon as my children are born!