Kat, the first thing I would do is try and increase the amount you have left every month. Try and increase that if at all possible. If you haven't done it already, drop the cable TV, drop the internet down the lowest service level available, drop the cell phone carrier down to the most inexpensive option, like no-contract Virgin Mobile, renegotiate all your insurance rates and reduce them as much as possible, ask your landlord for reduced rent for being a good tenant, start charging for personal tutoring. I know roommates are a huge liability, a good one can reduce expenses greatly. Try and increase the amount you have available by $100 to $300 total. If you could pull off some miracle and find $300 extra savings to increase your monthly available net to $500, that really increases the number of options you have.

Currently with only $200 extra a month, I wouldn't worry about paying down the student loan while that situation stays the same. If you were able to bump up your monthly net to $400+, then I'd consider a portion of that ($50-$100) to pay down the loan then. But with only $200 net to work with, for the time being I would "pay yourself first", as others recommended above.

Personally I'm always reassessing my expenses, trying to save more money. I'm going to meet with my insurance company again this month and squeeze more money from them again for my car and house insurance. I have no cable TV, the cheapest internet, the cheapest Virgin Mobile service, I eat at home usually, I don't spend money on alcohol, I rarely travel (now), use the AC minimally, I perform all the maintenance on my car and home. Right now that leaves me a lot left over to pay down obligations and skill-up in other areas. Every little cut you can make really helps when you sum them all together.

If you can get a reliable one, a roommate would make the biggest, fastest improvement in your bottom line. But the risk is that a dirtbag roommate could be more costly than your current situation, so evaluate wisely.

If I don't have a gun in 6 months, shoot me. I'll deserve it.

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Stocked up a nice little bit so far. Some good friends also began teaching me how to use firearms and I have a couple now for self-defense and for hunting.

It never hurts to make a minimal investment in fishing supplies. For a relatively small investment, a person can outfit himself to fish and provide at least some food with.

And fishing rods and tackle are light, easily transported, and reusable again and again, so they pay for themselves pretty quickly if it should ever come time to use them for real.

Two Words ... Minnow Traps

^^^^^^Very good to have on list!!

an even better two words - worm farm

That way, you get something for the garden AND something for the fish.

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Remember the first rules from Zombieland. No, not "double tap." Cardio

There is another huge reason for cardio. VO2 capability correlates with cognitive function and brain size.

from
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19123....

What the study wanted to show:

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In this study, we investigated whether individuals with higher levels of aerobic fitness displayed greater volume of the hippocampus and better spatial memory performance than individuals with lower fitness levels.

What the study found out:

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Our results clearly indicate that higher levels of aerobic fitness are associated with increased hippocampal volume in older humans, which translates to better memory function.