<prompt> Human: Hey rpersonalfinance! I had a few questions and was looking for some advice from you guys. My wife and I are looking to buy a home in the next year or two. We have 3 children, and are looking for at least a 4 bedroom. Home prices in the area we live arent outrageous 200-300k in nice neighborhoods 4 BR. We are looking to pay our debt down as much as we can, an eliminate what we can before we apply to make our debtincome ration more favorable for the loan, and to improve our credit score. My credit score is good 746 but my wifes suffered previous to us being together medical bills. She has no credit cards currently, has never got a car loan until recently, and was struggling until we met. I am asking for some help as to what we need to budget and what is best to pay offwhat order.Our static expenses currently are: Rent: 955 CableInternetHome Phone need home phone for work: 150 Electric: 120 Car Insurance: 170 Cell Phones: 100 Credit Card 1: 25 906.18 owed with 19.99 interest rate Credit Card 2: 25 938.72 owed with 19.99 interest rate Credit Card 3: 25 613.88 owed with 26.99 interest rate Credit Card 4: 25 1529.15 owed with 13.99 interest rate Car Payment 1: 243.75 6,439.43 owed with 10.99 interest rate Car Payment 2: 248.60 13,796.83 owed with 4.79 interest rate I know the interest rates are high. Three highest Credit Cards I got when I had shit credit. Same with car 1. Car 2 is higher because my wife is on the loan as well.Right now we bring home 4,000month. My wife is switching jobs soon and that will add another 1,000 to our income, bringing us to 5,000month. We dont make a ton of money right now, but I just switched career fields and she is moving to the same company that I started with as their is a ton of growth potential and their benefits and perks are fantastic. We currently have an emergency fund with 7,550 in it that we do NOT want to touch for any reason, and we have an account saving for a down payment for our home with 27,315. My question is, should we continue to contribute to our homeemergency fund, or take that money and apply to our highest interest cards to eliminate that debt, followed by the Car1? With tax season rolling in we expect a decent return that could pay off all CCs we have since changed our tax deductions to follow more in line with what we have learned here on Personfinance recently. Any advice relating to this or homebuying or anything would be fantastic. Sorry for the wall of text.Thanks everyone!  <response>: You think you have 27,315 in a down payment, but what you have actually done is borrow 10,427 of that at 20 interest. Use 10,427 from your down payment fund and pay off all your credit cards and your high interest car. Then immediately begin funneling all that money back into the down payment fund.Not doing that is costing you 235 per month in interest right now. And at 25mo, you are not going to pay those off for 5.5 years, and thats only if you never touch them before then. You can pay that debt off today. And then you have just given yourself a raise of 585mo 235 saved in interest and 350 that is now free to work for you instead of Visa.Stop thinking in terms of I have X dollars and X debt. Debt is just negative dollars. 