<prompt> Human: Here is how I paid off 10k of debt in a little under a year. It wasnt easy, and I had to change my mindset and my style of living, picking up a second job at first but its doable. This community has helped get me on track. Sorry for wall of text and bad formatting. I hope that this story and what I have done will help others.Some background: 22M had a easy job supervising at a factory. Pure luck to land such a good job, No college degree, Just 3 years of debt. I never finished my degree in Computer science. I got a supervisor job making 17 n hour in the mid west. I was able to get unlimited overtime and as you can imagine I lived at work. I was bringing home 1800 every biweekly check. I worked a lot but I also made a lot. Having more money that I could spend made me develop some bad habits, I always ate out, I didnt pay attention to how much I was spending. Here are some things I did that may not be wrong choices for everyone , but were wrong for me mainly because I didnt think long term. I bought a new car, I financed a 12000 Acura, put 3k down. Loan for 9000. Payments 179 a month. I could pay that easy! Insurance for my new car went up, Young single guy, I went from 50 a month for my 2002 Saturn sedan to 170 a month for my Acura, Whatever. I make plenty. I just got my own place-I need furniture- Finance 2000 for living room set. 150 a month. I can afford another payment! Who cares! I had applied for a credit card because..Free money right?! I make enough to pay a credit card. 1200 limit, Maxed out shortly after. I liked spending money and not watching it come out of my bank account. I never considered interest or how to properly use a credit card. At this point I meet a woman who I really like, Any spare money I would spend on her, or going out with her. Dinner, Bars, concerts. I didnt have a limit. Money never seemed to be an issue. I could just work more hours.Fast forward a little bitWe moved in together, she came with a dog, and she wanted another one. I bought a dog. Never thought about the costs of feeding and taking care of 2 dogs. I bought her a car, I financed 19500 for a Ford Escape. 380 a month. I can work more hours..You see where this is going? I decided I didnt want to rent anymore, rent was 650 and I wanted my own place. I make plenty of money I am just going to buy a house. I actually saved money by buying a house, rent went from 650 to a mortgage of 420. Still wasnt thinking about debt to income and how these things affected my credit. Want to marry this woman, I finance a ring 50 bucks a month. She said yes! Kirby salesman shows up and I bought a 2000 vacuum because i had money to spend. 75 a month Our washer and dryer broke. Instead of buying used or scratch and dent I went new and financed 1500 on a lowes credit card.Get an opportunity to take a more stable job, Something in IT where my feet could get in the door without a degree, get paid 19 n hour so an hourly increase but I lose overtime. I made a spreadsheet and look at bills. Its going to be close but It was doable. I talk it over with my future wife and we agree its going to be tight but its worth doing long term. I took a position making 40k a year Here was a household budget for us when I switched jobs.Income Wife 1,399.00 Husband 2,112.00Mortgage 420.00 TrashSewer 40.00 Water 40.00 Heat 150.00 Electricity 150.00 Internet 120.00 Food 400.00 Car Payments 565.00 Insurance 279.00 Verizon 200.00 MISC Credit Cards 127.00Lowes Credit 50.00 School Loan 80.00 Furniture Loan 150.00Itunes 10.00 Hulu 25.00 Barkbox 30.00 Gas 120.00Fitness 40.00 Dog food 90.00 Cat Food 40.00Misc 120.00TOTAL MONTHLY INCOME3,511TOTAL MONTHLY EXPENSES3,196TOTAL MONTHLY SAVINGS0CASH BALANCE265This is when I realized I didnt have a dime to show for all the hours working at the factory. I had absolutely nothing in my savings account. This is also when things started to go downhill, I got t-boned coming home from work one morning, I didnt have gap insurance on my car loan, I got stuck with the remainder 7000 debt on a car I no longer have. Then the trip to the doctors after the crash. 1000 dollar trip. Two months later I had to have my wisdom teeth out there was another 2000 in debt. Things kept going downhill, and I didnt have a emergency fund, and I couldnt work more hours. I was stuck. After adding the new debt as a household we had negative -19 dollars at the end of the month. This was a wake up call. I couldnt pay my bills. I was honestly scared, I felt vulnerable and really stupid. At this point I sat down and looked at things I could cut out to save money upfront.I had a couple good things on my side, I had a company car so the issue of transportation was temporally solved. I also had a company phone so I could get rid of my personal one. Getting rid of my personal phone, 100 Stop paying insurance on a car I no longer have. 179 I set up a budget and started paying attention to the things I didnt need like eating out. I canceled my gym memberships because I could work out at home. 40 I read that tackling the debts with the high interest rates will be the best bet. I decided I would take that approach after I freed up cash to make it easier overall. I got a second job in the meat department at Kroger to help pay down the furniture, freeing up 150 a month. 150 Kroger didnt pay much I made about 250-300 a month working 4 hours a day after work during the week every little bit helps though. This is where things started taking off, I started to take all of the profits and applying it to one single debt. I started with credit cards, The majority of my other debts were interest free for a certain amount of time. I was able to pay off two cards that I had only been making minimum payments on 50 I got a bonus at work and applied all of that to my dental bill. 99 I got a raise at work and had 100 a month for pay raise. My wife worked a little overtime when she could to try to help out. That made the process easier. We used all of the extra to throw at whatever debt we were tackling that month. It took about 4 months before I really started to see it start to snowball and grow. I am applying around 1200 a month now to debts each month.Through the entire process I tracked our misc spending. I wanted to reward myself for making progress but I didnt want to blow all of my progress. I compromised by only going out for dinner once a month instead of ever week. I stopped going into the store when I got gas, little things that added up. I started with a budget, Changed how I spent money, got a second job, and made it a full time job running numbers and managing my finances. I became obsessed with my spread sheets, my budgets. Even with paying all of this off we have been able to take a week long vacation where we traveled to Maine and have slowly been able to transition into doing more leisure activity and spending. I kept track of all my debt with this sheet here is a current snap shot Here is a current budget- Most of our cash balance is going to paying off the rest of my Acura, and building a 6 month emergency fund. We have about 4 months now. Gas and electric are rounded up to offer some buffer in other areas incase there is a fluctuation we average 100 for electric and depending on the time of year we go 50-100 on gas, Our buffer is around 100 a month. Maybe we tracveled a little more and payed more in gas, or we went over our spending budget because I needed new shoes. The buffer may not be the most accurate but I found it helped me stay within a budget and helped me feel like I was still on track the months I messed up.Wife 1,400.00 Husband 2,350.00Mortgage 420.00 TrashSewer 40.00 Water 40.00 Heat 150.00 Electricity 150.00 Internet 60.00 Food 400.00 Car Payment 585.00 Insurance 115.00 Verizon 100.00School Loan 60.00Itunes 10.00 Hulu 25.00 Barkbox 30.00 Gas 120.00Dog food 80.00Vaccume 75.00 Misc 120.00TOTAL MONTHLY INCOME3,750TOTAL MONTHLY EXPENSES2,580CASH BALANCE1,170  <response>: Your formatting is completely unreadable. But congrats on paying down your debt. Keep at it. 