Having a baby truly does change everything, including your budget. With college costs sky-high now, it’s even harder to imagine what tuition will cost when your own little one is earning their degree. Between building a nest egg and putting away money for your child’s future, one thing you can benefit from doing while you’re pregnant is tackling your own student debt.

Consider Your Approach

You can either work on making larger contributions toward your debt while lowering your savings or find ways to scale back other investments to put the extra funds toward your student loans. Even deciding to improve your money management to be able to up your monthly payment by $100 could be helpful since it will lower the amount of interest you’ll owe overall. If you can afford to take an aggressive approach, do so, but set a limit. You want to ensure that you have a specific amount of money you want to shave off your balance within a certain timeframe.

Use Your Tax Refund

If you get a refund from the IRS, you may benefit from applying it toward your student loan debt. Even using a portion of your tax refund can be a nice way to pay off several hundred or even several thousand dollars at once without taking it out of your bank account.

Increase Your Monthly Payment Amount

A higher monthly payment ultimately means less interest, so this is a long-term strategy that can still deliver noticeable results in just a few months. You can reach out to your loan servicer and see whether your new payments can be applied to your loans with the highest interest first.

Pay Off Other Debts First

If you can free up more room in your budget, then you’ll be able to allocate more money to student loans easily. Snowballing small debts, like credit cards and outstanding bills, could be a great way to free up more money.

Focus on Increasing Payments as Much as Possible

When you’re trying to pay off student loan debt, it can feel like running on a treadmill. You always feel like you’re moving in place instead of getting anywhere. Taking longer to pay off student loans ultimately keeps them looming over your head for longer, so aggressively paying them down as much as you can is a good strategy to help you get a head start on your financial goals. On top of being a pain to pay for longer, the thousands of dollars in added interest simply aren’t worth only paying the bare minimum when you can afford more.

Cut Back Spending for a Month

What could you give up buying for 30 days to put money toward your student loans? Consider doing yoga at home instead of paying for a class or opting to cook all your meals instead of buying food from restaurants. These short-term changes can have big impacts, especially if you’re spending a lot on non-essentials like app subscriptions, takeout, clothes, cosmetics, and the like. Consider tracking all your spending for a month before allocating a portion of your next paycheck to paying down your student loans.