<prompt> Human: Apologies in advance for the wall of text.I started my career and moved out on my own in 2010. That year I was making 40kyear with only student loan debt. Now Im making 80kyear with the same student loans, but now also a car loan and Credit Card debt. Ive already had my wages garnished once in the past to pay off a credit card that I defaulted on when I was 18 and it was a long process to build my credit back up from that. Once I got my credit score back to respectability, I took a new card out with the purpose of responsibly managing that balance to further improve my score. Less than 6 months later and the card is maxed out and my checking account will probably be in the red before my next check. I havent even done Christmas shopping yet and this whole situation has me stressed beyond belief. It seems like every time theres light at the end of the tunnel, I find a way to stretch myself too thin again.If Im being honest, Ive pretty much always lived beyond my means since I moved out. Every time Ive started making more money, instead of saving it, Ive increased my expenses. Now I need to create a plan to get things under control, Im just not sure whats the best way to go about it. Hopefully thats where you good people of rpersonalfinance can help me out.Heres a rough idea of where my expenses and debt are currently at. Ive put all the info into one of the spreadsheets from the FAQ section and it seems like even with my current expenses, I should be doing better than I am.Monthly Take Home Income: 4,334Expenses Car Payment - 301.87 7,600 owed 6.49 Car Insurance - 444 for 4 months out of every 6 1,788 total for 6mo policy Rent - 1,175 locked into lease until Nov. 2015 HeatGasElectric - 75 TVInternet - 115 Public TransportationParking - 150 NetflixSpotify - 18 Cell Phone - 85 Gas - 80Other Debt Student Loan 1 - 3,700 9 38 min payment Student Loan 2 - 11,750 6.8 185 min payment Credit Card - 3,100 19.8 80 min paymentEven though these are rough numbers, it seems like Im spending over 1500 in god knows what. I dont cook, so I dont have any grocery expenses but Im sure eating out is killing me just the same. In Nov 2014 for example, I have 368 in debit card restaurant transactions alone, and another 405 in ATM withdrawals of which I think mostly went to barsrestaurants. Does anyone have suggestions for how a non-cooker can stay on a fixed budget for their meals?The other thing killing me is this car loan. The blue book value of the car is only 4,000 at this point because I have a crazy amount of miles on it. Theres some cosmetic damage and Ive been putting off several service items because I never have extra cash to throw it at it. At this point it also feels like throwing good money after bad. Part of the reason my insurance costs so much is because I have to keep full coverage on a financed car in NJ. Im thinking of cashing out my 401k 11,500 vested currently to pay off the car, sell it, and buy a used one outright that has less miles on it. Ive already had to cash it all out previously in 2013 to afford the security deposit on the apartment Im in now. I knew about the significant penalties going into it, but I didnt have any other options. I had zero savings and needed to find a new place due to roommates moving away.Can anyone help me get this situation in control? The stress of living like this for so long is eating away at me. My parents have never been great with money, so I didnt get any kind of head start like a lot of the people I grew up with. Ive paid all my own bills since I was 16, including car insurance and college tuition. I learned how to work hard to get the things I wanted, but never learned how to save for the future and maintain it. I know its never too late to start but I honestly dont even know where to begin right now.Edit 1: Added clarity on the car insurance costs. My premium is technically 1588 every 6 months, but they charge you more when do it in installments. The first 4 months of the premium have a monthly cost and then then youre done until it renews. Im going to start shopping around and see if I can get a better rate but generally the rates are high in my area for young single males. Appreciate all the advice so far. Keep it coming!Edit 2: You guys are awesome! Typing this up at 4am when I couldnt sleep due to the stress I was feeling, I never expected to get this many responses. I really appreciate all the advice Ive gotten in this thread. Heres a little more information based on some of the responses Ive seen. 401k - Messaged received loud and clear. No longer considering touching this. Not worth it and probably not going to help as much as changing my behavior. Also, someone mentioned the 11k in there now should be worth about 180k when Im 55. Im not trying to rob 55 year old TheDarkMike for 180k. CarInsurance - I travel throughout NJWestchester county 2-3 days a week for work, which is why the car is somewhat necessary right now. Im definitely going to spend today shopping around for different insurance rates and see if I can get a better deal. Going forward, Im also going to look at the feasibility of using a combination of Uber and Zipcar to do my work travel and getting rid of the car entirely. Im currently upside down on the car loan so even if I sell it, Ill still be about 3 grand short on the loan. Tracking Spending - My bank account actually has this built in, and Ive been using Mint Check.me for a while now, but I was always half-assed about it. I never went in and actually categorized all the transactions, so the spending breakdowns were never accurate. Ostrich-syndrome so to speak. Im definitely going to start doing that. I seem to have a lot of cash transactions too, so Im going to look into a way to track those as well. Cooking vs. Eating OutBars - This is probably going to be the toughest adjustment for me. A few people have suggesting using a slow cooker, which I think might be a good fit for me, especially since I already have one I could use. I already downloaded a bunch of simple recipes and just subscribed to rslowcooking. Sticking to a food budget per paycheck will probably have the biggest impact on freeing up money to save and get out of debt. Avoiding the bars for a while wont be that hard since I actually have a lot of individual hobbies that I can focus on at home like video games and DJing. I wind up going more so because I dont wanna tell people no than because I want to be there. Also, being single, bars feel like the only way to meet people. Honestly, I shouldnt even be trying to meet anyone until I get these finances in order.  <response>: learn to cook. you dont even really need to learn to cook, just stop eating out and buy cheap and simple food. go to grocery outlet. it sounds like youre going to have to make some changes in regards to personal comfort to obtain your goals and live within your means. get rid of cable, you dont need it if you have netflix. netflix has enough content to fulfill your free tv-watching hours. stop going to bars. learn to develop some sort of fulfilling social life that doesnt involve expensive eating out and drinking. it really is possible! you can do it! 