I could cry... with happiness

In 1997 I took a government loan (career development loan) to fund an NCTJ Journalism qualification.

The interest payments on this were ridiculously high and - long story, short - I couldn't cope and got into bad debt. Several times consolidated huge overdraft, credit card and loans into a new loan and always, thanks to repayments that were too high for my salary and outgoings, got into new debt. Finally got a repayment agreement I could cope with.

And the FINAL payment - after TEN YEARS of this hanging over me and restricting my movements - has just gone from my account. Just gotta clear a little bit of credit card now and sort out England and then I'll actually be in a position to do some serious saving. For the first time in - well, ten years, I guess.

And just maybe I'll actually be able to buy something I want and not something that's the cheapest version of whatever. For once.