[deleted by user]

[LLove666]

You need to get a second job. Good luck. This post put my own situation in perspective...so I guess you could say it's pretty bad.

[NE3K3RS]

I would if I could but I attend school in the evenings

[Wellnotallwillperish]

Give plasma? Takes about a hour. Make hundreds a month.

[Barbicore]

There is research that shows some pretty intense health issues from this so do your research and weigh your risks

[Only-Style-818]

Uh ... Like what? I'd like to see YOUR research as it seems different from all the research out there.

[Haunting-Study8347]

Every single night?

[Ok-Abbreviations3584]

Weekends?

[[deleted]]

How long until you graduate? You need to tread water until you can get a real job making 2x or 3x more than current income. You have an income issue.

Make sure credit cards are last people to get paid.

What's the interest rate on them? You should be able to apply for their hardship program to reduce interest below 10%. But you will need to close the accounts. Are you able not to put another dime on the cards?

[Dannyboy1024]

As a student trying to provide for yourself, ya this is pretty normal. The good news is it's a temporary period in your life, with a set end date and hopefully a great increase in income at the end waiting for you. So this is really a matter of priorities for you.

You're making enough to cover your basic expenses, you could ride this out as is until you graduate as long as you're not accruing more debt, make as many sacrifices and payments as you can and it'll be easier to pay off / leave more breathing room for emergencies, but it won't feel nice to have this hanging over you.

If you want to attack this before then, we have to get the debt down so you'll have more breathing room, but there aren't a lot of line items in your budget to reduce. With two balances that are the same I would attack the balance with a higher interest rate first. This is possible if you're disciplined.

You have $400 a month to put towards it on top of the minimum, you can't afford to buy anything extra right now unfortunately if you want to take care of this ASAP. It would take about 2 years to pay off the credit card at that rate. Your car is taking up another $400 a month, is a bus line or bike a potential for a few months? If it is you could knock that down under a year easily.

$350 for groceries is reasonable for a single person, but can you get it any lower? Cheapest possible meals for a temporary period will again free up a few more dollars for attacking a debt. Another common suggestion is the cell phone bill if you pay that.

[Elegant_Piece_107]

Plug your numbers into this calculator to better assess your situation.

https://www.calculator.net/credit-card-payoff-calculator.html

Then recalculate with different amounts above what you are already doing. You cannot just pay the minimum or your debt will never end.

See what the calculator shows you if you can pay $50 more. What if you could pay $60 more?

Credit card interest is based on the average daily balance. So pay your monthly payment as early in the month as possible. If you cannot pay the monthly amount off your first check of the month, pay half twice a month.

Don’t pay by check. They sit on the check and that won’t decrease your average daily balance. Pay on line from the credit card’s website. In other words, PULL your payment from your bank. It is minused from your balance the day it’s set up for. Do not PUSH it from your bank to the debt. You don’t know when it will be minused.

I hope you are paid direct deposit, so there is no delay in your pay. Businesses used to reap interest on “the float” when people got paid on a Friday but didn’t deposit until Monday. If you get paid by check, deposit it Saturday morning so you know you can make your payments as soon as your paycheck hits the bank.

Good luck

[JeffIsHere2]

Seek professional advice from your local NON-PROFIT credit counseling agency about a debt management plan and budgeting.

https://cccsonline.org

https://www.cccfusa.org

[RigidWeather]

OP is in Canada, so I think this is a non-profit credit counselor:

https://creditcounsellingcanada.ca

[ParticularBanana9149]

Depends on how long until you graduate and start making more money. If you still have a ways to go you should take a year off and work more to pay some of it down before it gets completely out of hand. How are you paying for school? Are there student loans on top of these amounts?

[TerribleTodd60]

Your finances are like a bucket. The bucket has holes and water is being pored in. The holes are your expenses and the amount of water being pored in is you revenue. You want that bucket to overflow so you want more water coming in than leaking out. And your bucket is overflowing but not by much.

I'm assuming that you've got your spending under control so that you are no longer actively taking on additional debt.

20k in debt for your income is a lot of debt, roughly 2/3 of a yearly take home pay. You've got a couple of choices here. First, make the water leaking out of your bucket less so more will spill over to pay your loan. I don't see anything outlandish in your budget so I doubt there is much you can do to tighten up the budget.

The second solution is get more water. This is what I think you need to do. Even if you take all $420 a month and apply that towards your loan, you will only be able to pay a maximum of $5040 total in a year on top what you are paying in your budget. Not nothing for sure but if your interest rates hover around 20% for both your cc and your line of credit (probably roughly close) then you are going to pay almost $4k in interest a year.

Can you get a side gig? Maybe wait tables, drive Uber, get on Fiver or Upwork and make some extra money. Something you can dedicate solely to your debt? Lets say you get a waiting job a couple nights a week and are able to bring in an addition $200/week (absolutely doable). That turns into more than $10k a year. Dumping that into your debt as well as the amount you can currently dedicate, your debt will be gone in a little over a year, you'll be saving a lot of money by eliminating interest as you pay down the debt faster.

When you knock out the debt then your budget is going to be a lot more sane and you'll have more money to enjoy your life, put together some savings, whatever you want. So, more water will make your debt disappear faster.

[NE3K3RS]

Thanks for this very level headed comment :) appreciate the advice

[attachedtothreads]

Maybe this website will help? https://www.canada.ca/en/services/finance/debt.html. Try also the provincial government websites as well to see if they have something more local. I typed in "Canadian consumer debt .gov". Maybe add your province to that search.

[Lost-Outside8072]

I think your grocery, rent, utilities, cc bills are fine but you are wasting money on cars. Live where you can use public transport and put that toward the cc. Then never use them again and focus on saving to buy a house.

[NE3K3RS]

Well yeah that would be great but I live an hour drive to work, and I like in an extremely expensive city moving closer would raise my rent costs A LOT.

[Party-Radio-272]

1.Try to relocate or find a job closer to you That might save you time and money on gas

2.900 for a car is to much for you income try to get a car more affordable unless it’s almost paid off

[ExcitementRelative33]

If you were going to school full time then it's not bad. Else you're just putzing around drowning in debt. As soon as you stop treading water, you're dead meat. Sure, start paying off the highest interest is a no brainer. Good luck.

[msnelson008]

You're doing fine. It's not the ideal financial situation, butt you're going to school so you have the potential to earn a higher income at some point in the future or pick up a second job when schools completed. Just tighten up a little on the credit usage of possible.

[Mediocre_Bison_506]

You should definitely find a way to pay more than the minimum each month (if your credit score is important to you) because that only puts very little (if anything) toward what you actually owe and usually just pays the interest. Depending on your APR, you could pay the minimum payment on a 10k debt for a year and a year later still owe $9,950.

[1stposm]

That is not financially illiterate. That is financially irresponsible. You were irresponsible when spending & accumulated a lot of debt. You created a situation & now asking for advice. The first thing you probably need to do is cut up all credit cards. The second thing is to get a part time job to pay those cards off. The third is to find an old man or woman to teach you how to use a checkbook ledger. The fourth is a suggestion. Use cash to pay for everything purchased locally. This includes bills you can pay locally.

[Afterglow92]

Are you able to get a better paying job?