That actually doesn't sound all that bad cyanide (I already have a home that I have enough for the first down payment and 2 months payments saved back), but I don't know enough to freelance for programming since I've only dabbled around in a few languages and haven't chose one to actually pursue fully. The only thing I'm really good at is hardware/network setup which most people won't let someone uncertified do (as far as jobs that would pay enough to make it worth doing) but I will keep that in mind if things don't go very well at first. One of my friends even suggested scrapping metal if things got too bad. He said that's what his brother did to pay his first year through school.