@Anonymous wrote:Currently I am full time making about a minimum of $1,600 monthly. My biweekly checks range from $800 to a max of $1,000 depending on my hours and monthly commision (usually receive commision the last pay check of the month). My rent is about $730 plus utilities, I pay about $80 for my phone, and roughly $145 for gas monthly. I try to put $100 every pay check towards my credit cards. I pay my Discover an Victoria Secret card the first check of the month (Since VS is paid off I can now start putting a full $100 towards my discover monthly.), then I put the minimum of $25 towards the Chase (this min will probably raise once the 15MO no intrest ends) then $75 towards my Nordstrom card. I've been trying to do this for a few months now and its very easy to maintain currently. However, the issue is that I'm starting school late August. While to community college I was able to be full time and go to class on my two days off. But now I will be taking a full load of classes and will most likely have to step down to part time, roughly 20-25 hrs a week and on breaks I could work a max of 29. I have a little over $1,000 in savings so that I am able to make a monthly income of $800 while in school and pull an extra $200 in savings to cover rent monthly. This will only cover me until I am able to get my tax return (should be roughly $2,000). I could possibly use a portion of this to help pay off my debts but I won't have a better paying job until the Summer, where hopefully I can get something related to my major that will pay $16-$20/hr. So really I can only keep up my current payments (maybe a little more) until Sept. I'm going to try to work the lower end of full time (30hrs weekly) in Sept but if it doesn't work with my schooling I'd have to step down to part time and only be able to make minimum payments on all my credit cards.
So I guess with a $1,600/mo income, you have (conservatively):
$1,600
- 730 rent
- 100 util
- 80 phone
- 145 gas
- 200 card payments
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$ 345/mo. for food and misc expenses? ::cries::
At $200/mo you'll be paying it for 2 years. That amount hurts when you're working, let alone when you're trying to study on a budget that's tight even without credit card payments to make. Unfortunately, since income won't be getting any higher, you'll have to find ways to cut down further on expenses. I know you're already not overspending, but what can you cut? Is it possible to room with someone or find a cheaper place (fastest but most painful option)? If your phone's not on contract, can you change your cell phone company to a second-tier provider like Ting? Maybe drive less? You can also save further on food by cooking large at once, portioning them out, and freezing. Not that you're spending much on food as it is...
First thing is to decide to do the above... Cut cost to pay off more at a time. Once you're decided, you can look for options to lower your interest. At 20% interest on $3,875 principal, paying back $200/mo, you'll pay $844 in interest over 24 mos. With 0% APR, you'll be done in 19 months. Do every little thing you can. $3,875 can be as big or as small as you make it.
Starting Scores: No Scores (03/2018)
Student life - never easy! But you're doing much better then me, that's for sure. I commend you for that. I didn't even have credit cards then, I lived by the term - "cash only". On that note, here's what my thinking is -
$1600 - Income
- 730 rent - see below on cutting this down if possible
- 100 util - see below on cutting this down if possible
- 80 phone - there's cheaper phone plans out there, depending on usage (there's plans in the $25-40 range), est. savings - $40
- 145 gas - only thing I can see about this is to drive less or get a more fuel efficient car, if possible
------------------ $1055
Rest is CC payments and food, misc. expenses.
- Cut down expenses, this was mentioned before as well, since your income isn't increasing, I would suggest finding ways to cut expenses, cook, cut down on dining, cheaper bills, cheaper apartment, roommates, whatever possible that you can do. Remember, the goal is to be debt-free, it won't be an easy walk in the park. A friend of mine just did the same thing and cut out all expenses, cable, driving, etc. He ended saving around $500 a month in that alone, which helped him pay off debt even faster. Sacrifices are a must. As mentioned before, there's around $345 that looks like its unaccounted for (probably food?). I would definitely cut this down, you can easily spend $100 on groceries and cook simple dishes that don't take long and be able to survive easily 2 weeks.
- Since you'll be working part time, what will you be making per hour? There's other jobs you can do when you have free time if you don't work that particular day or time. Since you drive as well, look into uber/lyft if you can, also if you don't want to deal with people, check out Amazon Flex (package delivery for Amazon). See what you can do to increase your income, if possible. Since school starts in late August, you have about 6-8 weeks, it might not be easy but definitely see if you can either pick up extra shifts, another job, etc. Think of it this way, an extra $100 a week will give you even more breathing room and the ability to pay down a decent chunk.
I'm not a big fan of store cards - my target would be to pay those down quickly to a reasonable amount (atleast half) and then target the cards that have high interest, just make sure you make the minimum payments. In the end, it really depends on you on how hard you want to attack your debt. You can approach it as it's the plague and go all out, or you can live with it and pay it down overtime but keep in mind, it'll cost you much more in the longer run. The choice is yours.
Good luck!
