<prompt> Human: Im 25 years old, roughly 23k in credit card debt, and I make about 44k a year. This translates to about 2400 a month for me I get a certain percentage taken out of my paycheck to be put into my 401k, where I have about 9,000, and my rentparking is 1143. Other payments I need to make each month are: Phone biill: 130 Xbox Live: 10 Apple Music: 10 Gas: 100-120 Car: 250 although I may be able to work something lower with this, since I am paying my parents for the car, no interest Obviously I still need grocery money outside of this, as well as various household essentials. My boyfriend helps with all of that since we live together, but hes in some debt too though not as bad as mine.In terms of what Im looking at with my 3 cards, brace yourselves. Capital One: 9,630 on a 10,000 credit limit, 20 interest American Express: 12,566 on a 13,000 credit limit, 22.74 interest Chase: 477 on 500 credit limit, 15.74 interestBasically, I need some advice on how best to pay this off so Im not stuck in debt forever. I used to pay off my credit cards in full every month, but I took a trip last year that put me over in spending and I couldnt pay it off, and then it just snowballed from there. This has all been built up since June 2017. Im so anxious about it all the time but I feel like I barely make enough money to pay just the minimum payments alongside all the other expenses I have.I want to pay them off as fast as possible but feel like Im drowning and that theres no end in sight. Any advice is welcome.Edit: I live in Boston, so cost of living is relatively high.Assistant: It would take a lot of confronting and discipline to handle this, but for most people, the more you get into it, the easier it becomes and then before you know it, you won the game. But prepare for the long haul and steel your resolve.1 Put those cards somewhere too hard to get to so you dont use them any longer.2 Id check with payroll dept if you can defer paying into your 401K while you sort this out. Making a few percent gains on a retirement fund while paying 15.74-22.74 interest is a net loss, unless your employer matches your contributions in which I would not do this.3 Unless you need your 130month phone plan for work, Id look into that to see if you can get something less expensive. Inexpensive plans can be a hassle, but if you get used to only using Wi-Fi you could potentially save a lot. Maybe you have extras on the plan you dont have to have. Id shoot for a basic unlimited talk and text with as low a monthly as possible, and use WiFi where I can if it limits you badly on data. Honestly when using phones, its the downloading that eats up your data, so only download when you have free WiFi around.4 Id ditch the apple music. There are so many ways to listen to music for free. You can always get it back another day when you arent so tight on funds. The Xbox Live, ask yourself how often you need it, if its a lot of fun and leisure for you, then keep it.5 yes, explain your situation to your parents and see if you can go down to like 125month while you sort this out. Tell them you can do something like show them progress on your debts every three months to prove to them that you are taking advantage of their generosity in extending their loan term by double the remaining term.6 Groceries, other essentials, dont live in misery but see what you can do to save money. Fresh fruit and veggies are often a great solution to eating good food inexpensively. Avoid dining out. If you have a coffee habit, make your own instead of Starbucks or whatever. 7 Pay as much as you can to Amex while paying minimums on the others. Once Amex is paid, pay as much as you can to Capital One while paying the minimum on Chase. Once Capital One is paid off, pay as much as you can on Chase until its gone.8 During all of this: learn how to do basic budgeting or if you know how, make yourself do this.9 ONCE IN A WHILE: fuck it and blow 25 bucks on something that makes you happy. If money does nothing but make you feel like a slave, life is not fun!10 Learn to find things that are free to do to have fun. Walks, parks, museums sometimes have free admission days, libraries, reading books, exercise, researching things on internet youve always wanted to, in order to keep yourself occupied and have good satisfaction in life.As to the boyfriend, hell see what you are doing and if he is a good guy, hell support you in any way he can so you can achieve your goal of debt-free.Human: Thanks for this! Some of this Im already trying to do no more Starbucks ever, basic budgeting where I dont go over my daily budget. In terms of my 401k, my employer matches up to 6 so Im putting in 6 and its getting matched fully.I really appreciate all of this advice, believe me. And I lucked out with an extremely supportive boyfriend who is 100 on my team in trying to tackle this.  <response>: I would pay off the Chase card first. It wont make a big difference in terms of savings on interest rates, and youll get a big psychological boost from paying one of your cards off. Could you put 500 a month towards one card while you pay the minimum on the other one? 