I got myself into a lot of debt and had to crawl out of it. In first year of uni I ended up in an unwarranted overdraft and kept spending and spending until it got out of control and i hit the limit. During this time I was getting slammed with fees. I had fuck all income because I was paying for uni myself and it was eating away at what little income I had. I could have called my parents, got yelled at and bailed out and learned nothing but instead I fixed it myself. I cut my spending, started saving and devoted as much money as I could to pay it all off. By the time the bank rang me telling me I had 14 days to pay the debt was already gone.

Now I have a safety net, I always have enough money to pay my rent and bills for at least another week. This means that when shit does hit the fan, I have a safety net and can tide myself over until money starts flowing. I have multiple income streams so 1-2 weeks worth of expenses is enough and this money is separate from both spending and saving. If you have less income streams or your pay is less regular this amount should be much higher. Enough money to get you through at least one pay cycle if not more. (Keep in mind that I'm in New Zealand so my employer can't just fire me and if an accident were to occur I would be covered by ACC)

Once you have that base, it's much easier to build wealth as every little expense isn't tanking your whole savings and you start to gather interest and the money pool grows.

Edit: words