It has been about a month since I revealed the total amount of school loan debt that I have. I recently posted how I paid one loan off in full. This leaves me with *only* 9 loans left to knock out. My loans are spread across three services and the current balance for each is:
Servicer #1: $23,523.64 (3 loans)
Servicer #2: $42,576.08 (5 loans)
Servicer #3: $10,312.58 (1 loan)
Total: $76,412.30
Which means: I paid off $16,678.89 in the past month! It was so hard letting go of that money but it made a big impact.
andsoitgoeslikethis 
My mother-in-law recently passed away and left my wife about ten thousand dollars. I am really proud of my wife for using every cent of that money to pay off debt rather than running out to buy something or go on a fancy vacation. For her too, it was hard to let go of that money. However, I could see the relief on her face the moment she made her decision.
I am sorry to hear about your mother-in-law. It does seem like your wife made a wise decision in putting her inheritance towards debt. It is so hard to see so much money go to non-fun things but the sooner the debt is paid off the sooner new inflow of cash is yours to truly do as you wish.