<prompt> Human: I just turned 23 and have been living with a room mate for 5 years now but how I ended up where I am now is beyond me. A little back story, I moved from califronia to joplin 5 years ago on a greyhound bus with everything I owned. Long story short but the Joplin Tornado blew my job away and I went for 6 months un-employed and racked up a personal debt to the tune of 9000 dollars from my roomate. We now live in Tulsa and I have a decent job maintenance at a steel mill and I only owe him 2600 dollars. On average I pull anywhere from 700-1000 a week depending if I work over time or not. Take home pay is in the high 5s to low 6s after taxes, 401k, insurance and Roth IRA. By next payday im broke. I am currently paying all the rent to pay my roomate back 750 a month and a barley squeak by pulling that off. My car is a money pit, it gets around 11mpg, I have to drive out of the way to find E85 and something breaks every week on it that will cost me 200-400 dollars. I eat out every night, on average I spend 30-40 bucks a day on food, e cig stuff, chew and soda and other random crap. Its like one minute im holding my paycheck and the next its gone and now its out of control. I tell myself over and over again not to buy something and yet I do. I have no self control when it comes to money, especially when it comes to buying go fast parts for the car why it always breaks down. Every saturday I run my car at the drag strip 100 bucks right there, I feel its the only fun thing I get to do all week so its worth it but half the time the car returns back on a tow truck. 2 weeks ago I blew the head gasket from too much boost, last weekend the diff exploded. I need a new car but my credit is wrecked due to a vacation I took and ended being put in the hospital by a drunk driver. Ive tried writing everything down I spend money on, limiting how much cash I carry on a unreasonable amount, if I dont have at least 400 cash in my wallet I feel the world will end, tried biweekly pay and going to direct deposit. Nothing helped, at the end of the week I would be down to my last extra 50 bucks. Im just sick and tired of being tapped every week and something is wrong in my head that tells me things will not be ok unless I spend money. Help  <response>: You are at a crossroad --This: It really bothers me as my coworkers have so much.vs. This: on average I spend 30-40 bucks a day on food, e cig stuff, chew and soda and other random crap... buying go fast parts for the carThe equation is as simple as:Money Made - Money Spent Money RemainingYou already know how to not go paycheck to paycheck each month. Grow up, take responsibility for your actions, and stop spending money on random stuff. 6 months of cutting your gas station runs in half would be almost 4000 in your pocket. Take a hiatus from the racecar stuff too, and youd probably have north of 7500 -- in 6 months! That would settle your personal debt plus leave plenty for a nice used car. 