Submitted by HelpTA1310 t3_zbopqq in personalfinance
Hey all. Using a throwaway account because I feel super stupid and ashamed, but making this post for legitimate help and advice.
Situation:
Racked up tons of CC debt in the past year. I only had 2k beginning of 2022. Took on a new job that had me move up to NorCal (San Jose, CA) area and living by myself. Job paid 120k, no benefits.Unfortunately, I decided that this job path was not for me, and it was timed well with the recession, so I was one of the people who got laid off. Currently, I resorted to work at Best Buy so I can have some cash flow while applying to many IT positions as I can find.
EDIT: As a note, my lifestyle did not suit my income and ability to see when to stop. Now I'm paying for the consequences and I fully acknowledge this.
Debts:
- AMEX Plat: 9800 - $240 (goes up and down... this month is 548$)
- AMEX Delta: 3811 - 130
- Citi Diamond: 3796 - 65
- Apple Card: 6700 - 250 (financed a emergency phone for my dad, but has general purchases on there)
- Costco Card - 2858 - 70
- Southwest Card - 1614 - 40
- Citi Double Cash - 1159 - 40
- AMEX Gold - 436 - 60 (used for food)
Rough CC total: $27,408
Loans:
- CU Loan: $13,765 - $300 Minimum, 10.99%
- Happy Money: $8,283, $668 Minimum, 11.99%
- Car Loan... $93k - $1.5K minimum
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Necessities:
- Internet: 80$
- Rent: 1450 (split 50/50 with my sister)
- Phone bill: 140 (paid for myself + parents)
- Gas: 80$ per 3 weeks.
I've contacted Happy Money and they've lowered my payment to 200 for 6 months. All my cards have (most likely) highest interest, with the exception of Costco Citi being at 11%.
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What I've Been Doing:
- I've massively slowed down eating out. I found out that I spent roughly 80-100$ per week on take out. The past two weeks, I've only bought 20$ per week and I plan to keep doing that.
- I had to purchase a new car and this was stupid. My previous car was nearly paid off, and the engine blew. After months of repairs, they were not able to repair it and had sold it back to dealership. I've considered selling this car to CarMax, but the highest offer I've gotten was 75k. I need a car to drive, and I've thought about selling this car and getting a used Honda, but don't know what to do.
- The only subscriptions I have is AppleOne (for myself and my family) and Spotify. I've cut down on the rest.
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What do I do?
I've read on here that placing all of your recurring items and if you need to use a card on the highest spending card, while making minimum payments on the rest is a way. I've also read doing the snowball method is one way... but with limited income currently, what can I do? Any advice is appreciated.
I've exhausted all my credit offers, my score is in 640s or so now.
Super sorry for long post.. I'm just stressed, depressed about everything going on, and honestly cried while writing this post.