Hey guys!
I've been relatively active in the credit portion of this site but I could use some help with dealing with my current CC debt and saving up enough for an emergency fund. I would also like to have a "Vacation fund" so that when I go on vacation my charges are already paid for, but I know this is the last goal on my list.
Basically, I am looking for a sort of budgeting help.
Currently I have 4 CCs reporting a balance:
Chase Marriott: $3.8k/$7k (this is the card I use for most purchases)
AMEX BCE: $264/$3k (I use this card for gas/groceries)
CapOne QS: $611/$2k. (I don't actively use this card, I charged up to about $1.4k in June and have been paying it off since)
USAA AmEx Rewards: $600/$1.5k. (I also don't actively use this card, I had a recurring payment for USAA credit scores but I cancelled it to save money)
I have a car loan through Citizens One, 6% and $24k owed, $453/month due on the 27th.
I just opened (and have not recieved) the Chase Amazon card ($5k), Discover IT Student ($1250), and Victoria's Secret ($750).
I bank primarily with Chase, where my direct deposits go and I deposit my cash tips (I am a server and full time student). I also have a CapOne 360 Checking and Savings Account.
Anyways, here is what I need help with.
The Current State of Things:
I was having a problem with paying down my Chase Marriott while also still putting charges on it. Last week, I opened an additional CapOne 360 savings account, and I have been transferring money into it as I make charged on my Marriott card. So, if I charge it for $7.77 I transfered in $8. I have been rounding up to the neareat dollar.
In order to pay down my AMEX BCE, I have been sending pretty much all of my direct diposited paychecks their way, usually about $150 every two weeks. My balance has been going down as I charge usually about $75 every two weeks to it.
What I was doing to pay down the Chase card until I opened that extra savings account was to give them pretty much all of my tip out from work everyday as soon as I deposited it. Now that I have opened the savings account, I have been paying about half towards the balance and leaving the rest in my checking. (Example; Today I made $116, I made a $50 payment and left the rest in my checking for purchases to be sent to that savings account). However, in the past few months I have only been doing this after I have already saved up enough to cover my car payment. To take care of the payment, I would normally start on the 1st of every month and basically transfer all of a tip out into a savings account for the car payment until I reached $475. As far as the USAA and CapOne cards, I've basically been giving them $50 out of my Chase Checking about once a month (the minimum on each is $25). With my new strategy of transfering money into my one savings account for new purchases, I am not sure how I should go about setting aside money for my car payment and the other two cards, or for savings. Also, I don't know if it would be best to pay all of the money in the "Chase" savings account once a month or once a week? Any advice on this would be appreciated. My current plan for the new cards is to keep similar accounts to the new savings to cover all new purchases, which will allow me to PIF and not get into this situation again.
As far as income goes, I usually get three shifts a week. This week, I got three shifts and so far I have made $140 and $117, with about 15 hours at 7.25/hour. This is a better week than most, since about August, but we are supposed to start making more money starting Nov. 1st as that is when business usually picks up for us. I also just yesterday put in an application for a new transcription job to hopefully earn a little extra money each month, but I don't want to count on anything from that yet.
