<prompt> Human: Hi there. Im writing this on behalf of my gf who is 146K in debt between student loans and credit cards. We live together and split rentutilitiesfood, but keep the rest of our finances separate. While I am debt free and have several thousand in the bank, we need some advice on how she can tackle this monstrosity between our split costs and her monthly income. Here we go...Credit Card 1 has 30 interest, 294 minimum monthly and a 8,845.97 balance.Credit Card 2 has 12 interest, 222 minimum monthly and a 11,081.15 balance.Credit Card 3 has 13 interest, 90 minimum monthly and a 4,400 balance.Credit Card 4 has 0 interest, 63 minimum monthly and a 4,354.90 balance.Great Lakes Student Loan has 6 interest, 93 minimum monthly and a 45,962.12 balance.Federal Student Loan has 6 interest, 303 minimum monthly and a 44,602 balance.Car loan is 2 interest, 550 minimum monthly and a 26,800 balance.Total debt is 146,046.14.Budget: She spends 500 a month on rentutilities we split roughly 1,000 together and 150 a month on her phone.Her monthly income ranges from 2,400-4,000 but on average is 3,300.She works as a Nutrition Specialist at a luxuryspa resort and her income fluctuates due to commission and busy season.Her minimum monthly paymentscar paymentsrentphone add up to 2,265. If, on average, shes taking home 3,300 a month, that leaves her with 1,035 leftover each month for food, savings and activities.She only has about 200 saved right now and we both know this could be better. We are working on being frugal together but the anxiety created by all this debt had an impact on her spending habits before we started seeing each other. Im reaching out now to see how we can fix this but I know this amount of debt seems insurmountable...we really just need some direction, a starting point.We are trying to be frugal with our food budget and both love to cook, but being involved with nutrition means that we spend a little more for healthyorganic foods. We are budgeting 400 a month each 100 a week per person for food, so that takes her 1,035 a month down to 635 on average, depending on commission and time of year. Is this a reasonable food budget for our healthy accommodations? She keeps receiving these debt consolidation mailings and is considering them, but they reek of payday loan scams.She has tried to get a debt consolidation through her local credit union but they couldnt help her out. Questions: 1. Is it even worth seeking a debt consolidation? I dont know much about them and I understand it largely depends on the interest rates that are offered. Again, the ones that she receives in the mail seem like a total scam.2. What is the best approach for tackling these credit cardsloan payments? Logically, we think it makes sense to pay off the higher-interest credit cards first but Ive read it may be psychologically easier to create little victories by paying off the lower-interest loans first.3. We live in a sprawled-out town and at the moment, her car is a necessity. I am in between jobs and depending on where I become employed, we may be able to get rid of her car and just use mine. Is this something worth considering if we can manage it? How big of an impact would this have in the grand scheme of her overall debt?Thank you for taking the time to read this...any and all help is appreciated!  <response>: I agree with another poster that there is so much more to say about this, OP.There are options if she is disciplined enough. i onlyrecommend the following if she is disciplined enough to put all of the extra money towards her debts.She should try to find a 0 balance transfer offer, but if she cant find a 0 Balance Transfer offer for the high interest CC, what I would do is pop those federal loans into forbearancedeferment for a fewmonths and then dump every single one of those pennies into the high interest CC. Right now, all she is doing is keeping herself afloat. shes not decreasing her debt, Im hoping she just isnt increasing it.The credit cards have to go.Also, why on earth did she buy such an expensive car? What was the reasoning for that?Living way beyond her means with that vehicle. Get rid of that car if you can and get something used and cheaper.My husband and I recently got rid of a newer car and 250 car payment as we were gifted a 1999 CRV from my mother. We have the CRV, and a 2014 Escape 248month. It makes a huge difference because we carry only liability on the CRV as well. Its allowing us to save for the purchase of a new car when the CRV is no longer running.All tax return dollars you have need to go to the high interest credit cards. Every single dollar. No Ill take 200 for X and put the rest towards my card. Every single tax return dollar goes to your credit cards.My husband brought about 10k of credit card debt to our marriage and through putting all tax returns, birthday money, wedding money, etc., toward his credit card, and altering his spending habits, we are down to 247 on that card. This was accomplished in two years and getting married 2 months ago and putting all of our wedding money towards the credit card helped a lot. We could have gone on a honeymoon, but starting our marriage almost debt free minus student loans was a honeymoon in itself.We have a household incomeof 125k and my husband still has a second job. maybe she could consider getting a second job until at least the credit cards are paid off? This is a spending issue, not an income issue. i know its a spending issue because of the credit card debts.there needs to be a change in spending habits ASAP. This isnt impossible to overcome, but its definitely going to require work. 