My Salary isn't Enough (rates, creditors, charge, fee)
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So, I recently took on a new, less stressful job for my own sanity. Sadly, it was a paycut. On top of that, it was much farther away so I had to purchase a car to get to and from work. It's been a few months and everything is starting to stress me out financially.
Even after I moved into a cheaper roomshare ($611/mo) and negotiated my student loan payments from $300/mo to $195/mo, I'm still feeling the heat. I'm never late on any of my payments but I have no money left over for myself for things like gas, groceries, etc. I've been using credit to help manage and now I'm $8k in the hole and it's killing me and triggering my anxiety major.
I only make $37,500 a year before taxes. I'm really stressed out. Any way I can get out of this??
Honestly, it sounds like you are a person who makes rash decisions without thinking things through...and it sounds like that rash decision making is the true source of your financial and stress problems.
Spend every single cent at the beginning on the month on paper. Don't use your debit card for groceries, etc. You probably end up going over your budget by a few dollars here and there that way, but it adds up. Take your grocery money out in cash, put it in an envelope and pay out of there. You would be amazed how quickly your choices change when you see your money go out of the envelope. When it's empty, it's empty.
Take your savings from cell, that $150 you say you save now, any potential savings from adjusting your withholdings, any other found money you squeeze out of your budget(pay minimums on other cards, etc), and pay it all to Best buy. Rinse and repeat until it's paid off. It shouldn't take you longer than 2 months with the balance you have on the card.
Once Best Buy is paid, take all the money you would have been paying to best buy given the last scenario (don't forget to include the minimum payment that you had going to best buy) and pay the whole thing to the card with the highest interest rate. So you'd be taking the minimum payment you would have been already paying, then adding on all that extra cash. Rinse and Repeat until card #2 is paid off.
Use same process as before for card #3 until it's paid off. After those are paid off, I'd use the same process to attack your student loans
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Some good advice here...esp about the "spending on paper" for the month (i do this, too, sort of).
The 'use cash instead of the Debit Card' is something I do for "going out" money, but yes, this does discipline one and force one to make choices. I think the OPs food budget is already pretty tight, though, for a single person (based on my own food budget).
You need to pay that best buy off in one payment, and then put that money toward one of the other cards 100$ to one and 150$ to the other. After that one is paid off pay 250$ a month to the other. The sooner those are gone the better off you'll be.
It is really kind of sexy when you land a new job and they assign you to one of the big cities - i.e. NYC, DC, Chicago, LA, SF, etc. However, you had better make sure that the salary the employer is offering actually allows you to live the lifestyle you want to live.
My first job out of college was SUPPOSED to be in the DC Suburbs. However, I was immediately reassigned to a small town south of Richmond, VA. My friends were sharing tiny apartments at $800/mo each. I was paying $100/mo for a house share. Sure, the excitement level was not that great BUT I had money to actually have some fun in the big city on the weekends.
That being said, I understand your decision. Whether health or not, I don't really begrudge people for taking lower paying jobs if it will improve their quality of life.
I don't either. Problem is, it doesn't seem like the OP's quality of life improved by making this move.
You need to pay that best buy off in one payment, and then put that money toward one of the other cards 100$ to one and 150$ to the other. After that one is paid off pay 250$ a month to the other. The sooner those are gone the better off you'll be.
Good advice.
And yes to the poster who posted about moving to the big city, but then hitting the issue with the pay not being able to cover expenses. That was why I relocated to Sacramento from the Bay Area. They are not that far apart but far enough apart that the CoL (housing costs) was cheap enought to get my head above water and have enough to actually start saving, beyond subsistence living.
Didn't read through the thread, but what's the $8,000 in credit card debt from?
Also, no point in saving (except 401k match) when you have credit card debt. Just pay it off. The big exception to that is if you have expenses you can't pay with credit card. So if you can't pay your rent it'd be good to have a few months of rent saved up just in case. Rather than an emergency savings, you're just using your credit balance as your emergency savings as well as the minimum credit card payments. Or I guess if you've been late on credit card payments and they're shrinking your credit limit every time you pay some of it off that would be another exception.
My thoughts, People don't realize how much that $6 visit (Maybe even more per visit) to Starbucks kills their budget. Do that 5 X a week and now you are at $30 on to the budget. The deal is that many 20 somethings do that more often than once a day. I would want to see the op's exspenses for things like Starbucks, eating out, ect.
Brown bag it for lunch and you can save plenty. The thing to do is cut out all fast food, coffey shops, ect.
My thoughts, People don't realize how much that $6 visit (Maybe even more per visit) to Starbucks kills their budget. Do that 5 X a week and now you are at $30 on to the budget. The deal is that many 20 somethings do that more often than once a day. I would want to see the op's exspenses for things like Starbucks, eating out, ect.
Brown bag it for lunch and you can save plenty. The thing to do is cut out all fast food, coffey shops, ect.
The bolded is me. I bring my lunch every single day unless there is a special occassion (going out for someone's birthday, etc.) and I do not drink cofee or energy drinks. I am one of those 20 something's . I agree going out to lunch even 3 days a week is easily $25. That's $100 a month.
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. I agree going out to lunch even 3 days a week is easily $25. That's $100 a month.
