Miranda stays at home to nurse her finances

Unlike some of her mates, Miranda knows what she wants. She's hanging out to leave home and is itching to get out of school and start a nursing degree.

She gets in touch with Auckland University to check out the tuition costs for a Bachelor of Nursing and to get some idea of how much she'll need for textbooks, student association fees and the like - ouch!

Sorted gives her an idea of what living expenses she will have living away from home but she also does a reality check with her friend's older sister who's been flatting for a couple of years.

This allows her to work out what she will need to spend, in total, to become a nurse over the next three years.

She then approaches StudyLink to find out how much she can borrow with a student loan. She learns some hard facts pretty quickly:

• She will need to borrow the maximum if she wants to live away from home, and this still won't be enough.
• She will be ancient before she's paid it off.

Miranda has a re-think about what she really wants. She still wants to leave school and she still wants to do nursing but maybe living at home is just bearable.