Now, thanks to last nights parliamentary vote I'm going to have to find about £20,000 more than planned.
Fortunately I continue to work.
Fortunately we will manage. The only major debt I incurred was the mortgage on my house. Our next generation will be paying off student loans and trying to save for a house at the same time. Their starting incomes will have to go in two directions at once.
Which brings me to other families. I more than most know how education can enhance job prospects. I know many families, some of them now sadly broken where there will just not be the ability to pull together the £27,000 per child needed to get them to the university gate. We've been fortunate but wind back ten years and £27,000 X 3 = £81,000 and that would have been impossible.
Last night's decision is going to deny thousands of children the start in life that their parents had and now want for their children. The poorest families will just dismiss the prospect of their youngsters going to tertiary education. It breaks my heart to know very bright kids who are stuck in low paid jobs because they didn't have the extra helping hand that genuinely free education can provide.
Then we have the middle income families, these days defined as anyone earning over £25,000 per year. At the moment I know several public service workers in their late forties, early fifties fearing for their jobs. They have two or three children of school age. Their mortgages haven't yet been paid off. These are the people for whom last night's vote and the whole Tory hysteria over public service are going to hit hardest.
I don't share the tactics - I wouldn't be bothered to throw the Prince of Wales a kiss never mind a pot of paint - but I certainly share the anger.
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There's a concept of 'equality of opportunity' which has just had the rug pulled from under it. Not just with the fees but also the EMA which I know has been a godsend for many families trying to keep their children in further education.
How we can seek to saddle our children with so much debt in such a wealthy country is beyond me.
We are confusing several issues here. Firstly, the behaviour of certain elements (possibly not students) is inexcusable. Paint and bottles do not come from nowhere. (Some police are also culpable - separate issue: 'Is the Met. out of control - again?')
Attacking royalty may satisfy the republican urge but it is also an attack on the living symbols of the nation i.e. all of us. Attacking anyone going about their lawful business is wrong. Royalty, shoppers etc. Police take note as well.
These people are self defeating. Students clearly don't deserve a penny. They are supposed to be working, not rioting. And if you can never even dream of college, then that argument is a clincher.
They have made all students to be tarred with the same brush.
Equality of opportunity is NOT the same as equalty of result. Not everyone is degree material. Years of teaching taught me that. Sometimes people need to leave school and work before they are ready for academia - if ever.
There are many ways to achieve equality of opportuniy. University is only one. Too many young people are being led to believe that they mmust have a degree. Too many employers also believe the same lie. What about apprenticeships? Maybe Alan Sugar is showing the way forward. We cannot afford the level of faux academia we currently have.
We had our opportunities because there were fewer students in fewer colleges.
We need to address the destruction of the real wealth generators (industry by the Tories and agriculture by Labour). The shared policy of turning us into a 'service' economy may suit those nations who are scared of our independence, but it has been disastrous for the nation.
Expessing anger by violent demonstrations, violent reprisals or cheap political shots - on either side - is NOT the way forward.
Our society needs a major overhaul and a complete restructuring of its value system. Tinkering won't fix it, nor will thumping it.
We need a revival. Only Christ can fix broken people and broken nations.
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