This was very interesting to me too. I have to wonder how things have changed over the years.
She's 30, so 15 years younger than me. I was a poor kid from a frugal family too. I went military, so I only borrowed about $11-$12k (back in the 80's/90s), but if I hadn't, then I was probably looking at $40k. That doesn't seem to be too far off of $82k, for someone 15 years younger.
Maybe my memory is fuzzy, but I don't exactly remember getting loan checks. I think they all went directly to the school. So, this ability to use them to buy a TV, that just makes no sense to me. I do remember this one thing though:
I didn't really know about ROTC until right before college. So I didn't know about scholarships. I joined ROTC as a freshman and applied for a 3 year scholarship
I got the 3 year scholarship, but had problems with the physical. Namely, I scheduled my physical in Pittsburgh over the summer between Freshman and Soph years. This is a 2 hour drive. But the problem is that one of the doctors called in sick, so I was missing some info.
Because of that, I needed a special release form.
The Navy, therefore, did not pay my tuition for a few months after the start of the school year.
The school wanted *some* payment. So essentially, I wrote them a check for $3000, which was the sum total of the money I had from working 2 jobs, a total of 60 hours a week, over the summer (at $4.00 and $3.35 and hour, whee!)
Sadly, I never got that money back. Once the Navy paid, I had "extra" in my account, so they sent the loan money back to the bank. Okay, maybe that was a good thing, but eating was pretty tight those few months. Luckily I worked 3-4 days a week in the campus pizza place and got a free meal when I did.
So, loan checks, sent directly to the people - is this a new thing, or has it always been a thing?
The eating out and groceries thing. This is normal, but it needs work. Even as old as I am, I did not learn to cook until I was 32. My mom cooked. My older sisters cooked. I did not. In 2001, when I finally started looking at finances (I was 31, husband still in grad school, I was working), we were spending $460/mo on groceries and $400/mo on eating out. That is NORMAL. Most people don't really think about it at all. It takes work.
And it also takes baby steps to realize how you can save money. My husband and I are frugal and have never lived outside our means - have always been able to pay the bills. But we've gotten better at it over the years. First step is to take an interest in it. (Same with any topic. Eating healthfully, learning to cook.)
I really think that the loss of "Home Ec" - eating healthfully, learning to cook, learning to budget - at the high school level is a bad thing. My parents hated debt, so at least in college I was a total cheapskate. I couldn't afford it, I didn't get it. Man, I had a group project for an engineering class - and the two other kids in my group were "rich" to me. One of them was going to school tuition free because her dad worked there, and the guy's parents were paying. They decided to have our final report bound at Kinkos, back when that wasn't a thing. Color too. They told me I owed them $20. I said "if I had $20, I'd buy food. You noticed i'm eating ramen, right?"