<prompt> Human: Can I first just say you guys kick ass? I grew up with a single irresponsible mother who never taught me anything about finances. She would steal, commit welfare fraud, write bad checks, all that. I never had that example in my life of someone that knew what they were doing and lived their lives morally. I never did much with my life and money. I just knew I didnt want any debt in collections and I would try as hard as I could to not be like her. So discovering this reddit...I cant tell you how good it feels to be around responsible people and get solid advice. You guys are amazing. Anyway, on with my post! I just wanted some help budgeting and who better to ask? Im 30 and both my girlfriend and I work at the same place making 14 an hour. Our take home pay every month is about 2,000 each so 4,000 total. I have no debt in collections and the only thing I really owe on is my car which is a 143 a month payment. Girlfriend uses my old car and both are on my insurance policy. Health insurance is paid by work. We want to move to a nicer apartment soon so Ill just list that places rent in the breakdown. Rent: 1050Phone: 240Cable: 200Car payment: 143Car insurance: 180Utilities: 80The food is difficult to budget for. What should it be? Its me, girlfriend and our 9 year old kid.I also have 3 credit cards but dont use them all. 2 of them I just leave paid off and the 3rd gives rewards so I let that card be my spending money card every month. I charge whatever I charge and pay it off in full every month. I also have two savings accounts. 1 is at the same bank I have my car loan and its farrr away so Im less likely to go over there and take it out. I call that my untouchable emergency savings. This is new to me and I havent figured out how much Ill put in that sucker every month. Maybe 100? I was thinking I would auto-transfer 100 a month into that account and then every tax refund I get, put 1,000 in there and just let it grow and NEVER touch it. Over the years, it should get pretty size able. And someday when I get a better job, just add more and more. My second savings account is a temporary savings account. I transfer 100 a month into that also and just let it grow until theres something I want. New iPad coming out? Cool. Dont have to use checks. I already saved for it! Same for anything else. The difference between the two accounts is the emergency savings is completely untouchable and this one is saving up for fun things. New phone, vacation, etc. Am I leaving anything out? Oh! I also have a savings account for my kid. How should I manage that?So my overall question is how should I budget everything? How should I help my kid save, teach her to be responsible, what shoul my food budget be every month? Should I ever do any investing? What are Roth and CDs? How much should I commit to emergency savings? How much should be spending money for each of us? Am I doing ok?I just...hope Im doing ok. I worry so much. Its hard even going to work. Growing up was so traumatic for me that I have SERIOUS anxiety I never got help with so...all of this is hard for me but I deal with it. I feel like Im going to die going to work sometimes but ya know what? I deal with it for my child and my life. I feel like I could be doing so much better financially at 30 than I am now but I have no direction. I hope I can find myself in the next few years and someday have a job where Im making 60-70k a year. That...seems so impossible for someone like me but Ill never give up hope. What better things do I have to do with my time than try? Did I get too personal? Lol sorry! I just usually dont talk very much so now that I finally have, it all just came pouring out. Thanks guys!EDIT!: wow. You people helped me realize what a waste cable is. Of that bill, 180 is just for TV and most of what I watch is available online anyway! Im convincing the girlfriend to cancel as we speak. If we saved 180 a month, thats 2200 a year. Or 17,000 when my kid is 18. That could be my childs college fund. Wow  <response>: First of all: awesome that you grew beyond your upbringing and decided to be an honest man who pays his bills :- . While you are doing ok, Im pretty sure that with some tweaking you could do better, which might help with your mood and your anxiety issues. Your current income is not too bad, I would say: 4000 per month is quite the amount of money to work with. The expenses you list are a total of roughly 1900. If you also buy groceries for 300 or so, and gas for 100, then there should still be a lot of money remaining from the 4000 income. So I think it could be smart to start tracking your expenses. You would both have to agree on this your girlfriend and you, because you cant do that on your own. One way could be to use mint.com, another way could be to use smartphone apps I used DailyMoney for the android, now use MoneyWiz for the iphone - I believe both can be shared on multiple phones, but if not, find an app that you can both update - YNAB you need a budget might be an option.If you know where your money goes, you can also make changes. It may not be too hard to save 10 or 20 of your incomes, so 400 to 800 per month. Part of that could simply come from buying the same stuff but getting it cheaper for example I believe that you can get the same quality and quantity of phones and cable for less money, if you do some research, another part might come from giving up some things, but doing that so that you can have other things in other words: prioritizing where your money should go. If the two of you would manage to only spend 3200 per month and save 800, then you would have almost 10k in the bank after just one year. I am guessing your anxiety would decrease a bit, knowing that you have 10k in the bank? So in short: I see a lot of potential, but the both of you need to spend some time on this and change your behaviour a bit to use that potential. Good luck! 