<prompt> Human: Hey guy I have visited this sub a couple times in the past but never posted. I am in such a bad situation I dont know what to do anymore and the anxiety and stress of everyday life is really starting to bring me down hard I just cant do it anymore.I currently have 5 credit cards all basically maxed out total between all 5 is 8,200 and I havent made payments on 4 of them since like February and I dont have the money each month to make the payments. I currently make about 2400 a month after taxes are deducted from my paychecks, my rent alone is 1200 a month and I barely get by just paying the billsgroceries. I have a 1 year old and everything is just so expensive I dont know how to handle this situation. I literally have 0 savings and any money ever left over its like there is always a bill or something to pay I just cant seem to get out of this situation. I am being called by collections every day all day and was going to just finally call them all today and try to work something out that I can afford. But now I read some of the debt collection info here and im scared even worse. How do I approach this situation? should I call them and make a payment plan? and if it was possible for me to get the money all at once from somebody as a no interest loan would my best option be to do that and pay everything right away? what are the downsides of paying everything right away? I am just in such a panic right now I cant even seem to write this properly so forgive me I just feel like I need to get this conversation started right now I had to post something.Edit: I also just looked at my credit report from the link here and one of them says Account closed at credit grantors request. Is this because it was sold to collections?These are some of my expenses:Rent: 1250 a monthOur cars: 309 a monthCellphones: 120Electricity: 60-90internet and cable: 90 this is the only one i can actually bring down by getting rid of cable but thats still 60 for internetGas for a month im really not sure but I think at the minimum id have to say 180.This is all the bills not including the credit card payments or any money we spend on foodclothesdiapers and other baby needs you might be wondering how we live on the remaining 300 bucks and that would be your answer on how this debt got so big in the first place over the last year, we had good credit we had cards that were barely used, everything started being so hard we basically lived off the credit cards and now we are screwed. I am the only one working and we have no one to watch our baby and i am looking for a second job and random odd jobs i can find because no amount of money seems like it would be enough money.Assistant: Talk to your creditors. See what terms they can offer. Obviously you cant pay what you dont have. They cant bully you, just hang up if they become abusive. Bankruptacy is a possible answer. Dont feel ashamed for doing it. But first you need to take a good hard look at your spending and determine if in a short time that you will be right back in the same situation spending more than you earn. Are you on any kind of public assistance? Look into that ASAP. Human: Looked into all assistance I am apperently to rich for that. Our baby does get health care but thats it.Assistant: Would bankruptcy really be a good option with this amount of debt?  <response>: In my opinion, no, but others may disagree. 8k is not impossible to overcome. Lowering your rent somehow should be your 1 goal in my opinion. Take on a roommate if possible or move to a cheaper place. Can you ditch your car and share your partners? Is there good public transit around? That would help as well. Cancel cable; its not a huge expense but every little bit helps. You can likely save money on your cellphone bill as well. Do you have smartphones? data? 