Me and my two little bros are apostates . <| sep |> Nice to know ! They ' ve been helpful so far . My husband moved in a week and I will likely be there in January . <| sep |>$ 13 hr is more than enough to keep up on your bills at this point . My main advice Stop eating out . I don ' t care how easy it is . Just don ' t do it . Also stop buying sodas and chips expensive and unnecessary . Learn to precook and portion out meals . If you buy 3 lbs of chicken breasts , bake ' em , cut em up into bite sized pieces roughly 810 bite sized pieces per breast and divy them into 7 containers then fill with rice and frozen veggies and a slice of cheese , you ' re good on lunches for a week for around $ 10 $ 15 depending on how expensive chicken breasts are in your area . For example in October I spent $ 230 on groceries and $ 160 eating out . But this month I ' ve spent $ 30 eating out and $ 260 on groceries . That $ 30 difference on groceries meant I was able to feed myself for a difference of $ 130 in expense . Including buying special things for Thanksgiving that I wouldn ' t normally buy Turkey , cranberries , pie , and French Macarons , and my fridge is so full that my fiancee and I will sustain ourselves just fine until next month . The most important thing you can do is stop spending on shit you don ' t need right now like eating out , potato chips , sodas , etc . The biggest first step you can do is figuring out how to generally outline your monthly needsexpenses . You ' re doing good so far and I have faith you ' ll figure the rest out . If you are still in college or still have some kind of connection with your college ? you can get a year of YNAB for free , if not you can get a month of it free . It ' s helped me a ton in realizing the details of where my money is going and coming from . My credit card debt is much bigger than yours at it ' s largest back in August , it was about $ 4 , 200 . It ' s now $ 2 , 200 and I expect to pay it off by the end of February because my wife and I got a gift of cash for the holidays . Micromanaging your expenses will help you prevent your money from slipping away . After getting used to it myself , I ' m sickened by how much money I used to spend on literally nothing worthwhile . It takes commitment and strength of will to not spend money on things that are easy vs things that you should spend money on . Like I said though I highly recommend using a program like YNAB so you can get a better look at what you are spending money on . Even if it can be upsetting sometimes , it ' s important to know . Sorry if I ' m kinda rambling , I ' m no professional . Just a kinda drunk person .