Why would you let 15k go to collections if you had more than enough cash savings to pay it?

You sound like you desperately need some basic financial literacy. I would look into your local adult Ed programs and see if anything us available. You will never get into a better financial situation if you continue your current patterns.

I'm also not sure how you can expect to get useful help here when you've provided random pieces of information about your finances, and shown no willingness to cut any of the few expenses you have mentioned. You listed 4 things that total $1850-without adding in dinners, weekend meals, car or transit costs, utilities if you have them, clothing, hygiene and household items, etc. yet you think you can spend no more than $1900 a month?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do not save half and use half to pay off CCs. Start saving enough to have some type of emergency fund, but it does not make sense to save when you have high interest debt- for example, if a card has 10 or 15 or 20 percent interest you're paying, it does not make sense to direct extra cash into a savings account that reaps, what, 1/2/3/4 %? You should use as much as possible to pay down your debt. Paying down debt is an automatic saving.

You should read a personal finance book (not being snarky, I just did and it helped me).

I like this book. It covers a wide range of topics, it's easy to pick what applies to you and doesn't, has great summaries and lots of extra resources. http://www.amazon.com/Get-Financial-Life-Personal-Twenties/dp/0743264363/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1353720811&sr=8-8&keywords=finance+in+yours+20s

Oh, I'm sorry. I have $25k in savings. I COULD take a portion of that to wipe out the cc debt, but just figured in this economy, it'd be smarter to have a year's worth of bare bones savings in case of job loss. I figured since my cc debt went to collections new interest isn't being added onto it.

You figured wrong. They're adding all kinds of penalties and fees to it. Plus, you're a scumbag for having the money and not satisfying your obligations.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do not save half and use half to pay off CCs. Start saving enough to have some type of emergency fund, but it does not make sense to save when you have high interest debt- for example, if a card has 10 or 15 or 20 percent interest you're paying, it does not make sense to direct extra cash into a savings account that reaps, what, 1/2/3/4 %? You should use as much as possible to pay down your debt. Paying down debt is an automatic saving.

You should read a personal finance book (not being snarky, I just did and it helped me).

I like this book. It covers a wide range of topics, it's easy to pick what applies to you and doesn't, has great summaries and lots of extra resources. http://www.amazon.com/Get-Financial-Life-Personal-Twenties/dp/0743264363/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1353720811&sr=8-8&keywords=finance+in+yours+20s

Oh, I'm sorry. I have $25k in savings. I COULD take a portion of that to wipe out the cc debt, but just figured in this economy, it'd be smarter to have a year's worth of bare bones savings in case of job loss. I figured since my cc debt went to collections new interest isn't being added onto it.

I had no idea that there wasn't new interest if debt is at collections, but I don't know much about that. (I am the pp above). I'd look around on this site if you haven't seen it: http://www.savingadvice.com/forums/ I love it. And you should make some plan to get rid of that debt and get your credit score back up. Good luck! I have 4k of credit card debt I'm unsuccessfully fighting

What you need to do is start tracking your expenditure. Use Quicken or MInt.com (there are probably others) and download your statements into it every couple of weeks. Categorize all of your expenditures (this will take a while to set up but is fairly simple after that). Then you'll be able have a better idea of where your money is going and where you can easily make adjustments.

If you do this for a couple of months you'll be able to work out what's normal for you and how to account for unexpected expenses. then you should be able to make your own plans for making changes. Those same programs also have budgeting plans that will help you set your budget but in order to do that you really need to understand what you spend your money on.

Anonymous wrote:Do not save half and use half to pay off CCs. Start saving enough to have some type of emergency fund, but it does not make sense to save when you have high interest debt- for example, if a card has 10 or 15 or 20 percent interest you're paying, it does not make sense to direct extra cash into a savings account that reaps, what, 1/2/3/4 %? You should use as much as possible to pay down your debt. Paying down debt is an automatic saving.

You should read a personal finance book (not being snarky, I just did and it helped me).

I like this book. It covers a wide range of topics, it's easy to pick what applies to you and doesn't, has great summaries and lots of extra resources. http://www.amazon.com/Get-Financial-Life-Personal-Twenties/dp/0743264363/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1353720811&sr=8-8&keywords=finance+in+yours+20s

Oh, I'm sorry. I have $25k in savings. I COULD take a portion of that to wipe out the cc debt, but just figured in this economy, it'd be smarter to have a year's worth of bare bones savings in case of job loss. I figured since my cc debt went to collections new interest isn't being added onto it.

Do not save half and use half to pay off CCs. Start saving enough to have some type of emergency fund, but it does not make sense to save when you have high interest debt- for example, if a card has 10 or 15 or 20 percent interest you're paying, it does not make sense to direct extra cash into a savings account that reaps, what, 1/2/3/4 %? You should use as much as possible to pay down your debt. Paying down debt is an automatic saving.

You should read a personal finance book (not being snarky, I just did and it helped me).

I like this book. It covers a wide range of topics, it's easy to pick what applies to you and doesn't, has great summaries and lots of extra resources. http://www.amazon.com/Get-Financial-Life-Personal-Twenties/dp/0743264363/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1353720811&sr=8-8&keywords=finance+in+yours+20s

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you use comcast for internet/cable, I'd call and see if they have any deals that could lower your bill.

Definitely cut out the eating out by a lot. Packing your own will save you so much money.

I'm fine with how much I eat out. The goal is not to save as much money as possible. It's just to get a system in place that's more purposeful and less "Oh let's see what's left over this month."

I can answer that for you- you have 15k in debt, so you have nothing left over. You're in the negative and need to resolve that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you use comcast for internet/cable, I'd call and see if they have any deals that could lower your bill.

Definitely cut out the eating out by a lot. Packing your own will save you so much money.

I'm fine with how much I eat out. The goal is not to save as much money as possible. It's just to get a system in place that's more purposeful and less "Oh let's see what's left over this month."

NP here. Well, there's no way you can achieve your goal without saving or making more money. Budgets don't magically make that happen. Obviously you have a problem with living beyond your means. Try Dave Ramsey or the like.

if your debt is already in collections you could call and negotiate a lower amount. It might have already hurt your credit so you could simply not pay it. You should check because once that debt is sold it's already counted on your credit report. I'm not saying this is "right" - but you should look into it. If you don't have to pay debt back you'll be in a better financial position.

Anonymous wrote:If you use comcast for internet/cable, I'd call and see if they have any deals that could lower your bill.

Definitely cut out the eating out by a lot. Packing your own will save you so much money.

I'm fine with how much I eat out. The goal is not to save as much money as possible. It's just to get a system in place that's more purposeful and less "Oh let's see what's left over this month."

No commuting costs? Those add up.

If you use comcast for internet/cable, I'd call and see if they have any deals that could lower your bill.

Definitely cut out the eating out by a lot. Packing your own will save you so much money.

Anonymous wrote:You need to know more about how much you currently spend to make a reasonable budget for you. What you've posted so far does not have enough detail. For example, is your debt in student loans or car payment or credit card? If it is cc you should pay it all off as quickly as possible before adding to your savings. I can tell you $75 a week for breakfast and lunch for one person sounds like way too much. DH and I spend about $300 on food each month for two people and a baby.

Well, I'm spending $3 on breakfast each day and 9-$15 on lunch (usually under $10), so I averaged it out to $15 a day. I'm going to begin bringing breakfast from home to cut out $15 a week from that, but it's still a lot. Food is definitely where I splurge.

The debt is former credit card debt - it all went to collections back in the recession and is still there.

You need to know more about how much you currently spend to make a reasonable budget for you. What you've posted so far does not have enough detail. For example, is your debt in student loans or car payment or credit card? If it is cc you should pay it all off as quickly as possible before adding to your savings. I can tell you $75 a week for breakfast and lunch for one person sounds like way too much. DH and I spend about $300 on food each month for two people and a baby.

I take home $3800 a month split into two checks. These are my expenses:

rent - $1350
internet/cable - $150
cell phone - $50

I have NO IDEA how much I spend on food, though I eat out breakfast and lunch each day, so that's about $75 a week. PLUS dinner and snacks and stuff.
I've got about $15k in debt.

Ideally I could spend half my income for the month on ALL monthly expenses, and then take the other half and break THAT in half and put one half towards savings and one half towards paying off debt. Does this sound do-able? I want to keep adding to my savings and want to get rid of the debt to get my credit score up.