<prompt> Human: I know im terrible with my money trying to finally face this instead of ignoring it so save the judgements please...i bought a truck last october for 38,400. My payments are 800monthly for 48 months and im currently finishing my 13th month so ive paid 10,400. A quick black book search valued my trade in from 13-15000 so i would still owe over 10grand if i traded it in right now. Me and my wife both work full time and we definitely need 2 vehicles. I owe canada revenue close to 40gs and got another 20grand-ish bill coming at tax season. Credit card are maxed at a value 14,300. I rent. I have 3 kids. I make roughly just over 8grand a month as a personal contractor and dont even know where to start. I realize i have to start looking really hard at all my expenses and i know i dont need or can afford this truck. But is trading it in for a beater right now a good idea? Is it better to wait? Trying to stay positive but hard to not feel like youre drowning...ive always worked hard but spent it just as hard and have nothing to show for it...my kids have no savings my family has no home they can call their own and we exist week to week financially. I know this is my fault and need to fix it just have no idea where to start  <response>: Its pretty hard for any of us to give actual advice without seeing your finances. Heres what I suggest: make an excel sheet of all your revenues and expenses for the month. If you have to estimate a revenue, take your estimate and multiply it by 90. If estimating an expense, multiply your estimate by 110. This will understate your suspected profits and overstate your expenses so you can much more certain that your getting close estimates while minimizing risk. Then, if you have any money left over, its clear its very possible to pay for this truck. If you do not, you can look at the expense you listed and if youre spending too much. For the most part, your numbers should be based on past experiences. For example, if I went back the last 3 months and added up my food bill for those three months then divided by three, Id have a semi-accurate estimate of food expenditure. This will make your sheet more accurate than just an arbitrary oh I think I spend 300 on food a month. Once you make your hypothetical sheet, track your actual spendings. If its close to your sheet, then you can take the next step to decide how to finance better. If it isnt, clearly something was missed and you need to update your budget sheet 