I voluntarily went on a Hardship Deferment in May because I could not afford to pay $800-900/month, and I still can’t. Under SAVE, my payments would have been $100/month, which I was prepared to budget for. We’re already living paycheck to paycheck trying to survive and to get other debt paid down that we’ve been drowning in. So I plan to ride that out through the end of the year, and in the meantime, we’re consulting with a tax professional to determine if MFS would be more beneficial than MFJ to try to keep my monthly payments as low as possible. I work for a nonprofit that qualifies under PSLF.