<prompt> Human: Im really not sure where to start so I guess Ill begin with a bit of basic information.Im 24 years old, engaged, and living with roommates. My fiancé and I are both working and hardly making ends meet. Im working an 11hr job where Im getting 24 hours a week, paid weekly. He is working a job where he makes 9.50hr and his hours fluctuate from 30-40 a week, paid bi-weekly. We own our car and pay 450 a month split between us for the room we rent and our bills total about 160-200 a month. Every month I would guess that we spend around 60-80 for gas I work out of town and up until very recently, too much money on fast food. His credit score is around 675 and mine is around 525. Neither of us have a bank account and we both have prepaid cards that we load our cash onto if we need to make an online purchase. Lately we havent been spending money on anything but the essentials and still somehow have nothing saved. Weve cut out fast food and instead have been spending an average of 20 per 3-4 person meal me, my fiancé, and two roommates and only cooking two or three times a week. Our other meals come from various items we already have in the house. I am lost. I am so tired of being poor. Two years ago, my fiancé and I were both working and homeless. We finally pulled ourselves out of it and got into an apartment but when our rent was raised to 900 a month, we started to drown and thats when we moved in with our roommates. Our rentbillsexpenses are not that high but I need help desperately to figure out where to start saving money when I barely spend it as it is. We are so incredibly broke and we just want to be able to start saving for our future. Wed love to get into our own place again, get married, and start saving to adopt a kid as we cant have our own. But that all seems so impossible at the rate were going now. I dont know what to do. Assistant: Are you able to get bank account? How are you cashing paychecks? Check cashing places and prepaid cards both typically charge fees that prey on people in your position. If you can get a bank account youll be in a better position as far as both of those go.Do you get any government assistance? Can you get any more hours at work, or look into getting another job? The biggest problem here is that you both just make so little money that its going to be hard to pay for anything more than the bare necessities, and even that seems like a struggle.However, the lack of a bank account is something that you may be able to address right away, and its probably something thats hurting you.Human: I mentioned government assistance, but it may also be worth your while to look into food banks and the like, since your income is probably low enough to qualify.Assistant: Yes, there is one food bank in my town, open twice a week, both days only open hours when my fiancé and I are at work, unfortunately.  <response>: Damn, I would see if any of your roommates can take advantage of it.Other than that, the only thing I can think of is to keep track of literally every dollar you make and literally every dollar you spend. A written record somewhere. People use apps like mint, but a spreadsheet can work really well too. That can help you patch any holes. It suck, but that might be the best advice we can give. 