<prompt> Human: I am a married father of 3. I have never been good with money and I want to get things together because my kids are growing fast and I know that I am headed in a not-so-safe direction. I want to be able to afford them as teenagers and help get them through college and make sure that my wife and I have retirement and life insurance. I will start with income. I make 52,000 per year. My wife makes 25,000. I am afraid that I cannot increase this without my degree. That leads me to the next point. Student loans. I am 90 finished with my Bachelors. I owe 65k in student loans and I no longer have funding so my Bachelors is on hold. I owe the school 2,200 before I can go back. I will begin repayment on my loans in February which I cannot afford. I have a 2000 credit card that has a balance at 2062 so I can no longer use it. My credit is shot. Its under 500 because I have not been able to cover all of my bills in the because I lost my job and was out of work for about 4 months. Both of my cars were repossessed and I have since paid to get the cars back and I have been current on my payments since. I also have a credit card that was closed for non-payment during this time. It has a very high interest rate and a balance of 1200. I dont know if I should keep paying or let it go. I need to bring this credit score up though! I have 0 in savings. No health, dental, vision insurance because It will take out too much of my paycheck. These are all things I want to fixMy monthly expenses are as follows. Rent 1000. We were able to find a house big enough for the 4 of us and keep our kids at the same school. I know this may seem high but I feel like in my area there is not much better for the price.Utilities - 200 Car Payment 1 - 238. There is a 4000 balance left on the loan. Wifes car.Car Payment 2 - 295. There is a 12,000 balance left on the loan. My car. AutoRenters insurance - 140Cell Phone - 100Groceries - 380Credit Cards - 250Gasoline - 300GymMartial Arts - 120CableInternetPhone - 154Entertainment - 160The thing is when I put together a budget it shows I should have about 366 left after all of these expenses. However, I feel like something always comes up where I end up using that for unexpected expenses. So I am always left with nothing or in the hole each month. So I resort to stupid payday loan places and I get stuck paying their crazy interest rates because I am in a vicious cycle. I dont know where to begin to climb out of all of this and Im a little freaked out. Not sure what routes to take...Assistant: Sure. So, 160 breaks down to the following. Netflix - 9.66 50 - Eating out 50 - Kids50 - Nutritional Stuff Protein Powder, Multi-vitamins mostlyYou are right about the 366. So most goes to these payday loan fees when I pay them back. I basically borrow for 2 weeks at 600 interest rate and then get stuck needing to re-borrow. This for me is 1 that I have to fix. I need to just pay off this loan that I have and not re-borrow. Let me know if anyone disagrees. So the issue with my wife is tricky and I probably should have mentioned it. She started school a few years back. However she owes the school about 3000 and cannot go back until she pays it. So now she works at a gym daycare and makes 11.80hr. However, the kids go with her and we are absolutely daycare free. We do not have any childcare costs because of her work so its hard for me to complain. In my opinion, I just need additional income. I am considering a second job or starting an online business.  <response>: You cant out earn poor money habits. You make about 25k more than the average American household. You just need to cut out the fluff and stick to a budget. Keep your 4 walls up. Pay rent, buy food at a grocery store only, keep the lights on, and stay clothed. Buy clothes at 2nd hand stores. Everything else is fluff until you get out of this mess.edit: changed outspend to out earn 