<prompt> Human: Good day, rPF. I Am in need of some advice with a few issues. Basically due to some upheaval in my life, I now have a lot to pay for, by myself Previously shared with an SO, not married or jointly anything. Basically I am trying to figure out if anyone knows of anything that I can do to help myself reduce the cost of living. Below is a break down of my expenses vs income. Income - 1300 Guaranteed. Commisions from 150 to 800 most months. Car payment - 220 2010 GMC terrain, 115 K miles, owe more than it is worth Ins - 93 Rent - 359 Work at the prop. I live at, and receive a discount Utilities -150 Phone Verizon contracted 98 Gym -19.99 Hulu Netflix, 17 I have a credit card that I owe over 5k on two long distance moves that I no longer have help paying for. Right now I have the card frozen with a 0 Interest rate, and I also still owe a small amount to Best buy. My Student loans are a little over 30k, but I am still in school for now, though I will have to eventually pay for this too. So I want to know two main things: Does anyone have advice on how to reduceeliminate my car payment? I definitely do not mind having a crappier car if it meant that I would have lower payments. The other is my phone. What can I do to lower this cost? I would ideally have it around 50 a month, but right now I do not OWN a phone outright. Please, if anyone has any advice or general tutorials, please let me know! I would like to start saving for a house and start putting into my 401k, but right now I can barely afford food, rent, and payments per month.  <response>: You got this... Change cell phone service to Cricket or Straight Talk to reduce the bill by 40 per month roughly Use the debt snowball to help pay your car and other debts offYour income is 1800 based on 1,300 with 500 bonus vs an outgo of 957 leaving you 843 at the end of the month less a credit card payment of around 100 Im guessing so 743 leftover. Now, Im going to assume you owe about 6k on your vehicle. Get on a written zero-based budget Read the book The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey Use the cash envelope system and try to pay cash for as many transactions as possible. You can still use debit cards for the obvious purchases such as Netflix Hulu. Temporarily, stop all retirement investing temporarily and save 1,000 in the bank for a baby emergency fund. Go on a rice and beans budget, meaning DONT go out to eat, dont be going out and partying. Assuming the above, you have about 743 left over more if you get more bonuses. Lets say you throw 600 per month extra at your 100 per month 5k balance credit card. That makes your minimum payment on it 700 per month. Your credit card will be paid off in just over 7 months. All this time you continue making all your other minimum payments. Now your credit card is paid off, you have that 700 per month you had been using to pay the credit card to add to your 220 car payment, making your new car payment total to 920 per month. Well, if you owe 6k on your car and are paying 920 per month, your car is paid for in 6 months! In this example, within 13 months youve paid off your 5k credit card, your estimated 6k car and freed up 920 per month. Now cut up the credit card and close the account. At this point, you would increase the size of your emergency fund to equal 3-6 months of living expenses, so 4k to 7k which is easier to do since you have 920 per month income and no debts. Once your emergency fund is properly increased, you need to also restart your retirement plan at this point and make sure youre putting 15 of your income into your 401k or Roth IRA not counting any matches.You can see a video explanation HERE of the snowball method. This can help you eliminate your debts FAST!This is how I was able to knock out 10,000 in 6 months. Once your debts are eliminated, resume your retirement fund and make sure you are putting 15 of your income into retirement each month. 