If your article is aimed at people who typically have only a few hundred dollars of net cash flow every month, then I’d suggest maybe expressing that more directly :) Because the situation isn’t typical across all borrowers to have only a few hundred of net cash flow every month…..

Also, if a borrower has only a few hundred of net cash flow every month, then the question becomes: do they have federal or private loans? If federal, should they consider a more flexible repayment plan (which would have a lower minimum but they could still pay more than the minimum — based on their net cash flow — so as not to incur more interest charges than necessary)? If private or federal, what is their credit score and is there a chance to get a better interest rate (and if federal, is their income stable enough that the lower interest rate would be better than the flexibility of federal repayment plans) that would lower min monthly payment, lower interest payable, and increase their net cash flow?

If a borrower has more than a few hundred of net cash flow, then the suggested behaviors would be different.

In terms of skipping payments, I have experience with federal and private loans across 3 different loan servicers and have spoken with people who have other servicers so in total have view across 6 different providers — all of them seem to follow the same formula. If a borrower pays more than the minimum to the point that extra payments set them ahead of schedule, they can skip a payment if necessary (or, if set on automatic withdrawal, can contact the loan provider to say they do not want to make payment that month). This would therefore open up their cash flow for that month.