Credit card debt help

[melonpants]

I make about ~$600 every two weeks and of that amount, $200 goes to food and gas and $25 goes to gym membership (monthly). I try to put about $50 on my savings account every payday. My current debt is as follows:

769 @ 20.99% APR
1200 @ 22.99% APR
478 @ 0% introductory rate until 2/2015
583 @ 19.99% APR

I am looking for advice to see what the best way is to go about these debts. It doesn’t have to disappear right away, but it would be nice to get rid of them as soon as possible due to high rates. Please help.

[bjl584]

Looks like you have just over $3000 in CC debt.

First, what are the debts from? What did you buy?

Second, have you stopped using the cards? If not, do so immediately.

You only listed $525 in monthly expenses. Where is the other $675 going?

I'd say that we need to know where the unaccounted money is ending up, but without knowing more, is there anything stopping you from getting a part time job temporarily to pay the cards down? If you trim your budget back and increase income, you can probably have all the cards paid off in less than 6 months.

I'd target the higher interest rate cards first.

[bjl584]

I just looked at your old post from March.

http://www.savingadvice.com/forums/debt/76031-what-should-i-pay-off-first.html

At the time you had $1600 in CC debt and you wanted to have it paid off by May.

It is now almost August and you have $3000 in CC debt.

Looks like you have a combination of a spending and an income problem.

What has happened since March that has not only prevented you from paying the cards off but actually doubled your credit card debt?

[melonpants]

Since my last post, I was actually able to bring my debt down to ~300. But, I left the country for six weeks. I guess unexpected expenses made me use up more credit than I intended to. These debts are just from purchasing items here and there while I was away. Coming back, I had almost $0 in my account so I relied on my credit again. However, I do have a part-time job right now so I will have income again starting Friday.

I have stopped using my credit cards by not spending at all (going straight home after work, lunch is leftover dinner, etc) and put them away so that I won't use them for a short while.

The other $675 is going to my credit cards. I use my credit cards, pay them, and then accumulate more credit.

I have a spending habit, but I can easily control that as well (it was just hard for me after getting back because I had no money). I do enjoy budgeting, but these past few weeks since I got back was just a little hard since I was making no income.

[bjl584]

Since my last post, I was actually able to bring my debt down to ~300. But, I left the country for six weeks. I guess unexpected expenses made me use up more credit than I intended to. These debts are just from purchasing items here and there while I was away. Coming back, I had almost $0 in my account so I relied on my credit again. However, I do have a part-time job right now so I will have income again starting Friday.

I have stopped using my credit cards by not spending at all (going straight home after work, lunch is leftover dinner, etc) and put them away so that I won't use them for a short while.

The other $675 is going to my credit cards. I use my credit cards, pay them, and then accumulate more credit.

I have a spending habit, but I can easily control that as well (it was just hard for me after getting back because I had no money). I do enjoy budgeting, but these past few weeks since I got back was just a little hard since I was making no income.

What sorts of things are you buying with the credit cards? Is it necessity type stuff like gas and food, or is it frivolous spending like trips to the mall? If it's frivolous, then you need to curb this immediately.

[Permanent Temp]

I understand as I have an almost similar problem. We went on a last minute vacation as accommodations were paid for by someone else and ended up spending a ton of money. Right after that my hours dropped and then I needed to play catch up with groceries etc setting me back each week. I know have almost $300 in credit card debt which I can pay off this check. Now that grocery shopping I have spent a dollar there 10 here and its adding up. I am finally being strict with myself but I need do something about the cards.

Why did you have zero in your account if you had been saving money each week. I think you need to approach this two fold. I felt crazier and did more spending when I had no savings at all, I think you should maybe put $100 toward an emergency fund instead of the $50 and don't touch that money at all. Not unless it is a real emergency.

For me developing that cushion helped me curb spending and still does because it took so much work to raise that amount of money. I used to spend 3x as much when I didn't have that cushion.
Also all your APRs are high. Have your figured out how much interest that is costing you? When I figured out how much I paid off in interest all those years I was furious at myself. Quickly realizing that when you get something on a credit card and let the money accumulate it costs you way more in the long run. Maybe that might help you stop the habit too.