<prompt> Human: Im tired of running. See below for a summary of my basic costs. Monthly ExampleSummary of me: 26M, make about 40Kyear and live in a major east coast city. I live with my GF 25 of 5 years, we split a 2 BR with a roommate. She wants to move to our own place but I dont know how I will make it work since it will likely cost 2x what were paying now. Explanation of the 850: I pay rent directly and my gfroommate puts 850 on a shared debit card we use for all of our groceries, meals, shared expenses dog expenses, home supplies, etc.I have tried to cut every unnecessary dollar out of my budget and cant seem make a dent, then I did the math and I can see why: I have 70 of discretionary spending per month.In my mind, I am locked into all of these costs, everything else travel, entertainment, fun, savings, etc I just can never seem to afford so whenever I do them I dont even enjoy them because I usually have to put it on my CC and I know Im only making my life harder.Student debt is just below 20K major fistpump moment when it went to 19,xxx I racked up about 12K in CC debt over my last 2 years of college spending. The only reason it got so bad was I poured every dollar I earned towards my 33 share of private university tuition. I worked during all of my school years and summers, still neededused the CC. I bought the car an 07 Honda so I could commute to work, fortunately my office is moving soon so I can take public transit starting in 2015, at which point I am angling to sell it. In the meantime I have been driving UberX in my spare time to pay my car note and have a separate checking account that I use to pay all the Uber related bills mainly just replenishing used gas and the occasional car wash. Important sidenote for the unaware: UberX is really, really, really dangerous from a personal finance point of view. In the event of an accident Uber will only cover their rider, not you or your car. If I make a claim towards my insurance, the insurance company will find out I am driving for Uber and drop my coverage for breach of contract commercial insurance is something like 2,000month. UberX is pretty much done at your own risk. That said, I can make about 35 pre-tax driving for them so I do it because I need the cashAnyways, its easy to miss the obvious signs when you always look at your own finances, so please PF, help me out! How can I get off this financial treadmill? At this rate Ill never be able to do so many things Ive always wanted to do not to mention start saving some money for my own retirement like a responsible adult.  <response>: Youre spending like 650 commuting to work. Ride it out until your work moves. Sell the car. Build a small emergency fund, e.g. 1000. Put that 650 towards your credit cards. Build you emergency fund to 3-6 months expenses. Then pay off the student loans if the interest rate is above 4. Then youll be in a position to start investing for the future. At this point you should be able to afford a 1700 apartment between the two of you, depending on your GFs income. I wouldnt recommend it, but you could. Also, I have to say - 850 of shared expenses seems high. Track down where this goes. You may be surprised at easy ways to save money there. 