<prompt> Human: I will be blatantly honest and straight-forward. I took the Dave Ramsey course before I graduated college and my parents were extremely frugal growing up water anytime eating out, etc., but I still have never managed to have control of my finances. I am 25 and earning 50k a year. I have always been pretty out of control with my spending, constantly bordering on a zeroed out bank account. In college, the months I did budget went much smoother than months that I did not. Since school, I have not once made an actual budget, and I have been out of school about 1.5 years. I have a reasonable amount of student debtcredit card debt, that I plan on snowballing away concentrating on the credit cards. I am starting fresh this coming month with a budget that I find quite reasonable. I know a lot of you will think some of my categories are far too high eating out, entertainment, alcohol. I know these things are not exactly living frugal, but I want something that I know I can stick to from the start. If I were to try to shoot to low or zero out something like alcoholbars, I honestly would not stick to it. I know myself too well. While these numbers may be far to high for some, they are an extreme decrease in my life. I would really appreciate feedback on what you guys think of my plan and ways I can improve. In the coming months, I plan on lowering my want areas, and raising my debt payments. While I can be extremely impulsive, I am very stubborn. When I have rules, I stick to them. Thanks for the help!My budget I have enabled commentingAssistant: Since you didnt put the outstanding balance on those credit cards, Im going to assume youre paying a good deal of interest on it, Im also going to be blatantly honest.Any amount of credit card debt is an unreasonable amount of credit card debt, its a huge waste of money, and Ill state it clearly: YOUR CREDIT CARD DEBT IS AN EMERGENCY. Youre litterally throwing away money on interest.Your financial boat is sinking. You dont have time to establish a budget you can stick to for bailing out water, its coming in too fast. Youre one missed paycheck or injury away from being on the street. Read that again: YOU ARE ONE MISSED PAYCHECK OR HOSPITAL BILL FROM BEING ON THE STREET.Your goal right now is to tackle that credit card debt. First things first, find out the interest rate and outstanding balance. They should both be on your monthly statement. Find the one that has the largest interest rate. Thats the guy youre going to take out ASAP. Pay the min on all the other cards. After you pay down that guy, move to the next largest interest rate.Youre probably thinking you can do this in a few months maybe a year with the little reasonable budget, NO! NOT GOOD ENOUGH. You are going to live a lifestyle now that is only slightly better than you would if this debt ate you alive, which it will soon if you dont take drastic measures.Heres your new budget: Gas: 100 - youre only driving to and from work Groceries: 30 - beans, sandwich meat and bread Eating out: 0 - tell your friend you want to knock out your credit card debt Entertainment: 0 - a walk in the park is fun, free, and healthy AlcoholBars: 0 - tell your friends youre paying off credit card debt so you dont go broke Ecig: 0 - get cheaper juice, ask for samples from vendors, etc.If you do this you can knock out your debt quickly. Then you can use mint.com to make a reasonable budget that includes bars and a few things you like as you being to save up an emergency fund.Human: Alright Heres the Credit Card Run Down.Discover...7k - 0 APR until SeptemberAmex...800 - 0 APR until next MayGap...300 - 20 APRHeres the skinny on the rest. I know you may not understand this, but with my personality, I do not go 60-0 on anything. The useless categories as you see them are there for me to learn on and decrease. I know you think I am a paycheck away from being on the street, but that is simply not the case. If I tried to strictly follow your method, the truth is, I would be back here in a year after not being able to follow the budget. I am not trying to pretend that this is not a problem and I am somehow above ANYONE that is able to follow something that strict. If I could do it, I would in a heartbeat. I know anyone can do anything, but I am building a starter plan that I can be realistic with, that is all. I really appreciate the debt rundown though.Which card should I concentrate on. Since the Discover card is huge and starts accruing first, should I throw the most possible back at it?Thanks.  <response>: 1. knock out gap first since its relatively small and already costing you interest right now.2. after that, go after discover until next may.3. next may you need to compare the interest rate on amex vs discover and tackle whichever rate is higher first. 