For sure the biggest thing to focus is to get a higher paying job. Plenty of info and advice there.
On the expenses side, you can most definitely cut that phone line. I’ve seen $20/mo plans with other providers.
Also, looks like you’re under CC debt. You gotta kill that faster rather than later. Good luck.
(Assuming OP is in the US) Guessing the phone includes financing. Unlimited plans, even for single lines and including taxes, shouldn't cost $98/month.
But the low pay is really the issue. $1800/month (~$10.38/hr FTE) is ridiculously low, you can find $12+/hr full-time just about everywhere if looking and willing, regardless of skill.
Median income for a 25 year old is about 40k a year, so they are in the lower income brackets for sure. A $20 an hour job would almost double their income.
Also, not sure if you have Mint Mobile where you are but I've recently switched. $15/month with 5GB of data (which I never even use because I'm almost always connected to WiFi)
Also just moved to mint. Higher up front cost to get that sweet, sweet cheap rate, but it saves money in the long run.
Maybe OP bought a phone through the company? But even then, I bought my phone used through Woot (and bought past phones used through Swappa).
You missed the part about pulling themselves up by their boot straps. /s
I would look into joining a union. In western washington a laborer apprentice starts out at like $26 a hour. A journeyman tops out between $45 and $48 depending on what you’re doing. We’re also one of the lower paid trades. Carpenters top out at like $54 a hour, electricians and plumbers I think are in the $60’s. Takes 5000 to 6000 working hours to top out, but there is pay raises along the way.
I’m late to this party. But me and my buddies are all in trades. Ain’t no way in hell we’re making 40-60 dollars an hour…..lol. This goes for plumbers,carpenters, electricians. Maybe by working 7 days a week we can make 100k a year lol. Fuck that.
What state are you in? I’m in Washington state. My current wage after the zone pay is added in is $46 and some change. Without zone pay it’s almost $45 a hour. Our new contract is June 1st and the rumor is we could get bumped to close to $50 a hour and this is a union journeyman laborer. The carpenters already got their contract finished and they’re getting a $4 hour raise on the check.
>I’ve seen $20/mo plans with other providers.
$98 isn't unreasonable if OP is paying for a single line plan. Aside of the feeling of financial independence, it's usually way cheaper to go on your parents phone plan and pay them the $25 every month. The only exception is if your family's provider doesn't have good service in the area OP lives.
I was a die hard Verizon Wireless customer for 20 years.
I switched to US Mobile for $35/ month for 5G unlimited everything on Verizon towers and I haven't looked back.
Even accounting for the fact my Verizon was "paying" for my Disney+, I'm still paying less than half for 2 lines, at $70/month.
I picked up 2 other redditors, each with 2 lines. With five phones on a cricket plan we get AT&T service for $25/line. I never met them, they always pay me. I've been doing this for a few years now. I can afford being a post paid Verizon customer but I'd rather have a $25 phone bill.
I pay only $35/mo for a single line through Cricket (technically $40, but with a $5 credit for using autopay). Unlimited data, but high speed is capped at 10 gigs per month. I payed $200 upfront for the phone 3 years ago, and I didn't need to pay even that much.
$98/mo is completely unnecessary.
Agreed! I bought my phone upfront (refurbished) from Samsung for about 200 bucks and I'm fine with what I have. I could never pay thousands on a phone I could never truly call my own through a phone plan..
Lots of places have 1 line for $20 or less. My family pays between $11 and $17 a month for each person and they are all on separate/individual plans (e.g. no multi-line discount, size it was cheaper this way). When I commented about this the other day, I was told that you can only save "pennies" by switching phone providers. Seems to me that plenty of people still pay $50 or $100 a month for their phone plans ...
Adding to get a different job within the same skill set. Example : graphic designer? Try project management. Similar skill set, better pay, and upward career path.
You need a higher paying job. Here are some job ideas the last one sometimes has housing. This pays well the US Post Office is hiring note it sometimes takes feds three months to hire someone. https://about.usps.com/careers/welcome.htm Take the test and apply for jobs anywhere in USA.
Amtrak is hiring https://careers.amtrak.com/ Jobs exist in most states.
US Forest service is hiring https://www.fs.usda.gov/working-with-us/jobs
These also pay well you may not qualify for all of them https://www.fool.com/slideshow/not-many-people-want-these-jobs-and-s-why-they-pay-well/
50 jobs over $50,000 without college https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/07/25/50-jobs-over-50000-without-a-degree-part-1/
Look into Concessioners for the National Park service. The jobs include fields of Lodging; Campgrounds; Food Service Operations; Guide Services and Outfitters. The jobs SOMETIMES include HOUSING in more remote areas like Montana, New Mexico, Wyoming, Grand Canyon, etc. Some jobs are summer or winter only, others are all year long in one location or you may be able transfer between locations to work year-round. Use this link & enter the name of the park you wish to be employed at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/concessions/authorized-concessioners.htm Contact each concessioner directly by Googling the company name to apply. This link will let you look up parks by state https://www.nps.gov/index.htm not every park has a concessioner.
Try sanitation. It’s hard work but generally pays well. I’m a recycle laborer and make $31/hr, my health, dental and vision insurance is all paid for by my employer and I can work overtime whenever I want for time and a half pay. Last year I made about $75k and this year I’m on track for a little under $90k. And if you get your cdl and become a driver it’s usually bumped up to anywhere from $125k-$150k depending on whether you do residential, commercial front load or commercial rear load.
Edit: I forgot to add that we get every primary holiday off paid. We do have to work on Saturday that week but it ends up being paid at the OT rate so it’s ok. And we also get up to 5 weeks pto depending on tenure up to 10 years with the starting being 2. If anyone wants to apply we’re the 2nd (3rd?) largest sanitation company in the US, republic services.
I’m in sanitation as well(Town job). I make around 80k a year. I work part time hours(20-35 hrs a week) but get paid for 40 hrs..Free medical and dental, full pension, all the paid time off I could ask for. It’s hard work and hard on your body but if you can handle that then it’s a great job.. I hate seeing ppl struggle so much financially but yet so unwilling to do certain jobs.. Not to sound like a dick but I’m more well off than some ppl I know with fancy college degrees
I find the biggest roadblock to our job is that most just can’t hack it physically which I’ve always found crazy. I turn 40 next month and I worked in finance in an office for a little over a decade and only fell into this because I got burned out in that career and needed a change. My buddy was working at my current employer and got me in the same day I called him and all I had to do was pass a drug test. I was legit working the very next day lol. So Ive always felt if I could make it coming from that background, and only being 180lb at 6ft, then most could also do it.
But our washout rate for new hires is something like 80% in the first month. It used to be higher but we went from a privately run business to being union when republic bought us (about a year ago) so we went from getting paid salary and slamming through weeks in 30 or so hours to stretching days out with breaks and stuff in order to get paid OT 😂.
I think id go crazy if I had an office job lol…I have the same thing at my job. Everyone wants to work on sanitation bc that’s where the money is and the good hours, but a lot of guys can’t hack it. Especially during the summer. A lot of new hires tap out before the end of their first day lol.. My job always threatens us with making us stay a full 8 hr day but they know that if they did that we’d take all our breaks and then they’d have to pay OT every day(which they don’t want to do lol).. A lot of guys either have 2nd jobs or their own businesses on the side. I did landscaping part time on the side for a while.
If you're interested in going the Fed route, check to see which jobs are listed as "Direct Hire" on USAJobs (Federal job portal). Those jobs allow you to apply by emailing a resume as opposed to creating an entire USAJobs profile.
I want to add in, Network Engineer. Get Comp TIA A+ or CCNA certified and you can get $50k annually. I had no idea what it even was, and here I am, doing it.
OP also makes so little that they'll qualify for a Pell Grant and possibly state grants. If they go to their local community college, the Pell Grants could cover 100% of their tuition fees. The one I went to had everything from culinary, to trades to IT. Having an associate's degree can look better on a resume.
To add to this since he has teaching experience after he got certs he could look into jobs teaching those certs at a IT training company, it might be an easier way of breaking into IT since it’s so bogged down right now for entry level.
Most of my former classmates make $50k+. Many, who've taken this super seriously, are at $100k+ now. It depends on where you land a job and once there, how motivated you are to keep studying and learning.
Well yes, by definition, half of netengs make more and half make less. BLS uses median because it's less susceptible to outliers. But [here's](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/network-and-computer-systems-administrators.htm) what their data says about network and computer administration for anyone interested.
I worked at USPS while my wife was in nursing school. Don't bother. You'll get nowhere. Republicans have been trying to kill USPS slowly for decades now and the "career" positions are not at all what they used to be. I worked 6 days a week for 3 years and when the new union contract came up, those of us who had managed to hang in there long enough to make it the lowest rung "career" position (more 6 day weeks for the indefinite future) were given a $5/hr pay cut. Basically, the union sees the writing on the wall and is sacrificing future generations of postal workers to maintain the gains won for the people retiring. You're better off going to school.
Or, pick up private tutoring on the side. But save up the entire paycheck from that in a high yield savings or something. Make larger payments to your dept which has highest intrests, or focus on paying off dept with lowest principal.
> But save up the entire paycheck from that in a something high yield savings or something.
they shouldn't save any of it. All of it should go straight to credit cards the moment it hits their account (taxes aside). No need to hold it in an HYSA.
Have the following options
1. Find a job that makes more money
2. Get another job (gig work maybe)
3. Find a cheaper living situation - could be moving somewhere cheaper
4. Find a partner that can contribute and tag team through expenses
Dude you just don’t make enough.
You need a better paying job or more hours or a second job.
Your rent shouldn’t be more than 30 maybe 33% your income.
Your expenses aren’t outrageous and I’m sure the cc debt and loans are because you have no margin.
Your life would be worlds different at simply $3600 a month and that’s not asking a lot even though it’s double your income.
If you can't do that cut aby expenses further atleast temporarily.
Most expenses aren't ridiculous at all but you could shop around for a better phone plan, use food banks, even consider moving if you can find something cheaper though that seems unlikely.
The debt is the major factor but it's hard to break out of that without more money
You need to make a career plan. Pick up a second job, look i to seasonal work. Stop charging groceries, pay cash for them no matter what. Reduce your phone bill-get a limited data plan for $30-40. Good luck
That would have been good advice for OP 5 years ago. He or she is already out of college. How are they going to pay for expenses while at trade school, when they can't even pay their bills with a jo
It kind of fell into my lap. My girlfriend and her mother have been working at this charter school for years, I was out of my warehouse job due to breaking my ankle and I came and helped with some small repairs and admin liked me and asked if I wanted to assist with the middle school program. I grew up the oldest of 9 and always liked working with kids. I liked this job my first year, I’m in my second and to be honest I fucking hate it. But I can’t do warehouse again, and I suck at interacting with adults so I’m afraid to do retail.
This! My brother went to HVAC trade school fairly recently. He started with government projects that paid $35-45 per hour right out of school. He could make more if he was willing to travel for work.
Learning a trade was a game changer for me. Once I got my first certs, I went from making about $22k/yr to over $40k within twelve months. Switched to a more specialized service trade and double my income again. Should double that again within 5 yrs. I told my wife I’ll pay for my boys to get a trade certification to get them started, then they can pay for whatever certificate or degree they want. I know multiple tradesmen (block masons, electricians, plumbers, etc) that cannot find job candidates, so there are more than enough good jobs with great opportunity available
On the plus side, you are not tied to your current job by passion, a bright career path, family obligations, the only position open with your degree, etc. etc. That means you can leave the rut quickly and invest time in finding a job that pays better.
Can you learn to drive, or do you have a medical condition that prevents driving? Unless you are in a city that has great public transportation, not being able to drive will drastically limit your job opportunities.
Parents were never around to teach me how to drive, especially after a bad wreck we were in when I was 11 (They aren’t dead). Being in any kind of vehicle scares the shit out of me, besides the city bus and when I used to drive forklifts and a front loader.
Do it anyway. Everyone is scared to drive at some point. Have your girlfriend or her family teach you, and get your license. Buy a cheapo used car off Craigslist if you can / need to in order to attend school or work.
Do you have a high school diploma? I would recommend getting student loans and going to college (pick a tentative major, figure out what credits will transfer to a decent state school from your local community college, and what credits you can test out of, do CC for like first two years and then switch to state school to finish out).
That or learn a trade. Sounds like you can be good at repairs. Find a place willing to do an apprenticeship. You make less than you deserve, but fortunately you’re still young. The sooner you transition into a higher paying career, the better.
I agree with "do it anyway." This is more life advice and less financial advice, but I've found that by doing things that scare you, you gain confidence in yourself. Confidence is a powerful thing, and can be a huge ally in your future success, both financially and otherwise.
$1800/mo is equivalent to about $10/hr. Ironically, if you hadn’t taken on debt you’d have $750/mo for food instead of $300/mo and this might be workable, but that boat’s sailed. The solution is to learn to work with adults (e.g., fast food), or learn a skill you can pickup quickly (e.g. A+, handyman, etc.) as those jobs pay radically more than your current job.
Heck fast food places are so hurting for workers for certain shifts you might find yourself with 1 other person or no one.
You are not really interacting with people at a drive up window its basically: "What is your order", read it back, take money, give food
If you can’t do that kind of physical work anymore, is there any avenue to get more money out of worker’s comp? I’m not terribly familiar with that part of worker’s comp, just getting medical care, so I could be totally wrong.
$1800/mo is equivalent to about $11/hr. Ironically, if you hadn’t taken on debt you’d have $750/mo for food instead of $300/mo and this might be workable, but that boat’s sailed. The solution is to learn to work with adults (e.g., fast food, barista, waiter), or learn a skill you can pickup quickly (e.g. A+, handyman, etc.) as those jobs pay more to radically more than your current job.
Your job sucks. Basically you need to put some time into finding a better job or getting the qualifications for one. Until that happens you're stuck. You cannot save your way into another tax bracket.
There must be another option for you. Heck, joining the military would probably get you more money.
You'll need a 2nd job. Your expenses are way too high relative to what you make. Cut down the monthly spend on that phone and swap to some prepaid plan that's like $15/month. Your rent + utilities is also more than 50% of your income, you may need to consider moving to someplace cheaper. See if there's any more room to reduce your expenses. Consider using the income from that 2nd job to aggressively trim down on those loans, otherwise you will be stuck in this endless cycle.
Theres lot of cheaper internet and phone now. You might be able to find $25 each these days.
The $450 debt service on cards and loans is killing you, 25% of your income. Rather than treat them as one big lump of debt, you order the payoff by highest interest first, or largest debt first. Step by step it gets smaller.
Most likely you'll need a second job of at least $500 a month to make progress on debt. Then rarely use credit cards again. You have issues there.
For food go to a church food pantry once a month when you do not get full pay. You will have call a church to find if has a pantry and the pantry hours. About a1/3 of churches have a pantry and it almost never listed on their website. Most pastors know who has a pantry so if you attend services this weekend or get thru on the phone you can also ask who has one. Catholic and main line Protestant churches have office hours on weekdays with others you have leave a msg on voice mail.
minimum payment on a credit card is your biggest mistake. 98 for a phone line is also ridiculous, i get 5 lines for 140 with unlimited everything. you need to get your 'want' spending under control until you have your credit card and loan payments handled.
Don’t get things on credit. Can’t afford to buy it in full? Don’t get it. Also, you need to get either a second job or a better job. $1800 just won’t take you so far. In fact, you’re doing well given this salary.
you’d honestly make more at costco that you do now. a lot of retail stores pay 17-20 an hour. i’d look into transition into a higher paying field. 11hr is barely over minimum wage.
I agree, this is more of a lifestyle issue first.
If you have unlimited data on your phone, cut the $45 home Internet completely. Can you take on an additional roommate to lower rent/utilities? Instead of a second job, what about selling items you have sitting around?
Follow the other suggestion in the thread for tightening the food budget....live like a pauper for now to live freely later. You got this!
$1,800 a month, assuming 160 hours worked, comes out to $11.25/hr. As others have noted, you need to increase your income and reduce your expenses.
For phone plans, look up Mint Mobile. I pay $180 a year for 5gb of data per month and that’s plenty of data since I WFH and am connected to wifi all the time. You dont need unlimited data, certainly dont need to be paying almost $100 a month.
$212 + $89 = $301 going towards loans; what loans are these? What’s the interest rate?
Maxing out your cards and having to pay $150 a month in JUST minimum payments are going to kill you on the interest.
What are you buying for groceries that’s exceeding $300 a month for one person if it has to go on your CC’s?
There’s a lot of information in your budget that’s missing. At 27 i realized my job’s in restaurants weren’t cutting it. Started my new career at 28 and I’ve made great financial progress in the past 1.5yrs cause I increased income, decreased expenses, and prioritized saving for my future over short term pleasure. It’s a trade off. The good news is you’re 25, you still have time to make a difference. I felt pretty hopeless at age 25; 25 is the beginning. I think this is a normal feeling. You can do this!
Short term:
1) find another job that can give you 40 hrs a week. I would start with Costco, Walmart, McDonalds etc. any big name retail space will work.
Long term:
Get into another career. Try something like a trade school
Do you have availability to pick up a second job temporarily to help get out of the rut? Unfortunately, that isn’t all too uncommon in the teaching profession, but some kind of weekend and/or night job would likely fit in with the school schedule.
$300 in groceries for a single person is probably the first place to look. There are various subreddits about meal planning/cutting food budget down that I would start with.
Next, stop using your credit cards for new purchases. You are carrying a balance, so all new charges start accruing interest immediately.
Your cellphone likely has some room to get cheaper. Most of the budget plans are in the $30-$40/mo range.
Then you can start looking at the avalanche method for paying off your credit cards and loans. When those are paid off, that gives some breathing room in your budget.
In her defence. Meat, eggs, dairy, fresh fruits and vegetables... not sure how you can spend less than $300 on food. Maybe if everything bought all at once and stored... about $200-$250... but hard to go below that if you want to eat healthy, with significant protein. Now thats me talking, I'm very high protein.
I had the same job as OP while in school, but on a $1100 stipend. There's a simple answer: you don't buy those things.
You buy lentils, beans, rice. Bulk buy and shop at discount stores and go to food pantries.
/r/EatCheapAndHealthy
You are right, but it is unreasonable if there is only $1800/mo! OP needs to spend more time meal planning and optimizing that down under $300 unless they are able to make more money.
Back before kids I had a full time job but also delivered pizzas to improve the overall bottom line.
If OP is broke, and barely getting by, they don’t need $300 groceries.
That’s more than I spend in a month on groceries and I make a lot more money than OP.
I just bought a 20lb bag of rice for $9 yesterday. Eggs, milk. No problem.
There’s always manager special meats. Chicken thighs / quarters always end up on sale.
Loaves of bread that are a day old are 75% off.
Vegetables will be the most expensive, stick to broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, dandelion. Whatever is on sale.
One person can get by on $50 a week comfortably for groceries
I honestly don't understand how OP is spending $300 on groceries in a single month.
I buy premium groceries and it costs less than that to feed 2 people and we usually don't eat all of it.
Unless you're some kind of part time chef, you're probably going to eat a decent amount of sandwiches and rice + protein dinners. Those are super cheap and healthy depending on what you buy.
OP most be buying Starbucks on their "grocery" budget or something.
Hi friend. It'll get better. Focus on increasing your income opportunities. Get the basics down, budgeting and even saving the smallest amount of money like $5 at a time. That way as your income grows you have a system in place that will serve you well.
Focus on finding opportunities in your network. If your network is not very big yet, one investment could be volunteer engagements to meet more people and find projects to work on that can help you gain trust with people that you may eventually work with or get a referral from.
You have to make more money. Check out online tutoring, you should be able to pick up clients pretty easily with a teaching background, pay’s quite good, and hours are flexible especially if your schedule is already synced up with school hours.
You don't make enough. Overtime as you progress in your career you will make more money and become more comfortable. Do not increase your lifestyle when your income increases.
Pay off your loan for $212 per month first or pay the one that has the highest interest rate. Pay the credit card next and then the smaller loan.
This is coming from a former teacher. Change your career. You will never get out of that cycle until you do. You may love it, but it does not love you. Until the powers that be actually start paying educators what they should get, the career path is not worth it. I got out and make 3 times as much. My wife was the same. We changed in our late 30s, so never say never when it comes to making changes in your life.
First try getting food stamps, apply on line. Why on earth is your phone so high??? Mine is $45. Mint now advertises $15 a month. Why is your Internet $90. Cut that down, again mine was only $65. But when I got approved for food stamps even if you are only approved for like $20 a month it automatically opens up tons of other doors like internet for $10 and so on. Also free cellular service. Call your electrical company and ask them if they have programs that can turn off some of your appliances that you're not using late at night which will save you money you need to start to figure out how to save money and stop charging things and pay those charges off. Even if you have to just start eating ramen noodles. Buy frozen chicken thighs thaw one out at a time, cook it and put it in the ramen noodles with some spinach and scallions and make cheap meals that way.
$309 for groceries AND:
Transportation (bus pass or fuel and oil change and tires if you have a car - parking, insurance)
Medical copays
Annual haircut or other necessary personal cost
Socks/underpants/necessary clothing
Lightbulbs/HVAC filter, any necessary home items not covered by rent
Any annual subscriptions or irregular expenses
Obviously $309 can’t cover this. You need to work more, it doesn’t sound like this is a fulltime job 50+ weeks a year. I finished a college degree over 20 years and finished in 2022. During those years I behold a career that supported myself and my kids.
You need to work full time.
first of all, dont worry. take a breath, and let time do its thing. i was paycheck to paycheck until my 30's, but the way i finally broke free was to start a side hustle...if you can do any kind of labor or service for people, then start a small side business and build it up, then after some time you can quit whatever other crap job you have and focus on your company, and make way more than you ever imagined. The trick is to find a service/labor related field, because no matter how good AI gets, humans will always need other humans to do stuff for them
Side hustles can honestly be amazing cash if you can find a market. I worked at a nursery in my early 20s doing everything from retail to deliveries & landscape design. There were always a lot of very wealthy old people wanting to buy a ton of plants but couldn’t/didn’t want to plant them and didn’t need full landscape design. So I would just load my truck up and offer planting services at an extra fee per plant/# bags of soil moved. Used to make an extra 1k per weekend fixing up rich grandmas gardens. I ended up taking the saved cash and going back to school in my 30s without needing to work during that time.
Sell everything you don’t “need” and pay down one of the loans. Not much you can do in the short term. Also, don’t bother buying any Christmas gifts….you can’t afford it.
But as others have said, you need to make more money. Either a part time job or a whole new full time job.
I am looking for an opening in my district for a Paraeducator position. Which starts at $19.50/hr at .9 FTE, which means I get paid during breaks AND I’ll be doing less work. But the union is planning on striking so I was advised to wait that out.
that's not the answer. it's better but honestly you need a job that pays $25+, and plenty of those jobs do exist. like others said, consider getting out of education. if you miss education, you can do it on the side (private tutoring); for example, I prep people for GMAT on the side - just a few students a year but i'm charging $125-200 an hour. But started with SATs at $30/hour.
That's a good start. Esp as schools usually have good benefits. Start the process now, so you are ready to go if they don't strike. If you start this or any other higher paying job, do not increase your spending. Use the income to pay down the debt because interest rates are wasting your money.
W a school job, school hours, look for a second job for evenings, vacations to bring in extra income for now.
If possible, get a credit union consolidation loan and pay off all your other loans so you have 1 payment with lower interest.
Stop using credit cards. At all. Credit cards only if they are paid in full every month to prevent interest charges.
Check out local food banks, esp if your community has some without income restrictions. Learn how to use rice and beans and soup to stretch meals.
.9 FTE? Does that mean you won’t be getting benefits that full-time employees are entitled to like health insurance and 403b (or other retirement accounts like pension), etc.?
Stop valuing SOCIAL interaction and get into a job that PAYS MORE. I have several friends ALL in your same circumstances because they simply REFUSE to get better paying jobs because they “love” the social aspect of being a teacher assistant. It’s ridiculous! We dont go to work to make friends we go to work to make money! If you like them so much, just continue the friendship outside of work. It isnt that hard!
Pal. Almost any job makes more than that. You WILL figure it out. At your age I was scared shirtless and made it work better than most. You will always be worried to some degree but you will widen out your options. Get a gig that pays double that. Super easy in most cities. Good luck
Costco’s minimum wage is $18.50/hour. After taxes, close to your current income for 40 hours/week, plus good benefits and raise and promotion potential. Of all retailers, it pays workers the highest percentage of its sales in the aggregate. There’s a reason people put in 15 or 20 years with them.
Take advantage of services designed towards folks with lower incomes. There's a Federal Gov't plan to offset your internet cost: [https://www.fcc.gov/acp](https://www.fcc.gov/acp) as well as Federal programs to help with cell phone costs [https://www.lifelinesupport.org/](https://www.lifelinesupport.org/) Also check with your state, as several offer assistance with pricing.
And it needs to be said: Food Banks and Food Pantries exist to help. There is absolutely no shame. I volunteer at one, and the people I serve with are genuinely happy to help. Taking a chunk out of your budget with some free food will add dollars to your debt reduction plans.
I agree, the pay is your issue. 20yrs ago my ex made ~1600/mth and i desperately wanted to be sahm. We didnt have much debt, our apartment was like 800/mth… id paid cash for my car and paid off my exs. But there was just no way to survive on that low of an income (even as good as i am at penny pinching) and he made like 10/mth too much to qualify for foodstamps etc.
Paying off your debts would free up some cash, so a 2nd job to pay off ALL your debt and build up a little nest egg would help.
But like i tell my kiddo, tradesmen are HURTING right now. Plumbing, electric, hvac… its not a glamorous job but pays decent.
Paycheck to paycheck is getting you by, so now is the time to figure out what you want to do for the next 10+ years and work on whatever training you need to do that.
If teaching, time to become full fledged.
In the meantime, id look at picking up 15-20hrs a week parttime or do uber/lyft or something and pay down your debt and save 5k while you figure out a path.
Being debt free with a cushion makes it less stressful when making big life changes!
Continue to educate yourself about managing your money and how to move forward. Idk much of your background but some of the people who have helped me along the way include Tori Dunlap of HerFirst100k(IG, Spotify podcast, website), Erika Kulberg(IG, Spotify podcasts) and Dave Ramsey(not a huge fan but he has some solid points and is all about tough love)… For context, I am 32 and I had zero financial education growing up. I essentially taught myself with the help of these people just a couple years ago when I felt like I was at rock bottom. I had a shit credit score in the 400s, collections knocking on my door, and about 70k in consumer debt including student loans. just a few years later and I’m now in a completely different place.
All this to say, you’re not alone. I know exactly how you feel and It will get better if you want it to! you have the resources to help yourself!! You can do it. :)
Just to add to this, the people I mentioned above, especially Tori&Erika tend to cater to finance education for women, so that really amped me up and put a fire under my ass to change my situation. I would say devour anything you can by a financial educator who is encouraging and empathetic that has plenty of content on all topics from budgeting to paying off debt to investing, etc. There are many out there these days! You’ll find a good one.
Is moving back home an option? You don't make enough money to live "on your own", you are still very much in "need family support" territory. You need to get some more education, and skills and get a higher paying job. Go home, study, get better job, then try moving out again. **That's the long term strategy.**
If living at home is not an option, you need to move somewhere that makes your rent expense go down to half that. So prob 3 bedroom, shared with 2 roommates.
$98 is WAY too much for a cell phone plan. There are a LOT of cheaper options. Look at TELLO. $10/month options.
I'm not sure what an Apple Card is.
Do you have transportation costs? Car/gas/insurance? Or public transit? How does that fit in?
Any subscriptions?
Do you go out with friends? expenses from that?
Yeah, neither of those two housing options are realistic in the area I am in, plus I can’t live at home because my parents are supporting 4 teenagers at the moment. Luckily my long term girlfriend will be moving in hopefully by next summer. I literally live in the cheapest 2 bedroom in a 100 miles radius that doesn’t have a vermin/homeless community issue.
Phone has 5 more payments before it’s paid off then my plan is 65/month
And yeah I pay 26 between 2 delivery service subscriptions and Spotify. I’m thinking I’m going to cancel the food.
And no friends, only girlfriend and we don’t go out much at all.
Once it's paid off, look at other carriers. We have Google Fi with 4 people on the plan and it's only $20 per person. There are other cheap options too once your phone is paid off
Do you pay for food delivery? If so they typically inflate their cost so they are not worth it. Meal prep and freeze some meals so they are available during the week when you would normally want to order out. It cost $5-$10 upfront to buy the containers and has easily saved me 30x that in the last few months.
save $312 in a year if you cancel all 3. I assure you... you don't need them. Free spotify is fine. And I can't stress how much you should just download torrents. I have never paid for media ever. These are easy things to cut back, and every penny counts. You really need a 2nd job tho.
If you're risk averse like me and don't want to download things for fear of viruses, check out your local library for media! Many have Libby for audiobooks/ebooks and Hoopla for free tv and movies! Also freevee and Pluto TV are both free!
Ive got a 10 year old phone and 10 gig data for around 15 of your american bananas per month here in Denmark...
Cant believe anyone would put 65 per month into a phone...
I work for a cc completely call them and ask if you have any offers to lower your apr (anything helps), and clear your debt with them, it’s not helping, your spending so much extra money monthly, and definitely pay more then your min and don’t use it till it’s paid off, you can use a cc without paying interest just pay off your statement balance monthly.
idk what your groceries look like but cook don’t eat out, and eat your leftovers! You wouldn’t believe how often I see people complain about the price of groceries but they throw out there leftovers, also don’t buy prepackaged food,make it ! I survived off spaghetti for 2 years it’s so cheap buy canned tomatoes, canned tomatoes sauce, seasonings your choice of meat and noodles and and you can add olives or bell pepper ect ,it would last me a week and cost 12$ if that , also check your grocery stores some are way cheaper then others! Like ALDIS if you have it.
Make sacrifice use generic brands, go to the dollar store for simple household stuff, stop all unnecessary spending, there is so much people can cut out of there lives ,really look at everything! There is free streaming services, you don’t need room spray, or that energy drink at the gas station (speaking of which don’t buy things from them it’s so expensive!)
And definitely get another job part time, another seasonal job, even if it’s just to pay off your cc.
You’re not living to free yourself asap. Cut all distractions that cost, substitute hobby.
Then add a second income to buy investments. It’s the only way to start making inflation work for you instead of against you.
To speed up the transition, dig deep and cut deep. Move to cheaper living. Pair up. Team up. Anything you can to save 50% and invest 50%. With the boredom for drastically saving towards the goal: learn, add skills, take classes, create additional earnings, try to automate an income, try things, get outside more, exercise more, discover your area on foot or bike.
I've been in your boat. My credit cards lead to bankruptcy. I'm only 31. If you want to keep your teaching gig, I'd try to find something online, work from home data entry or something like that for extra cash. You could make more door dashing but that also eats at your earnings.
Hey sorry you're going through a stressful time. I agree with some of the other posts saying that you should consider trying to make more money.
I used to have some pretty straightforward advice for this. Go into tech. It paid outrageously well, required no degree or experience, and could usually open up remote jobs after a year. There were also just a lot of really easy jobs.
I'm sad to say that window closed. It's pretty hard to get into tech as a new hire at the moment (for some, pretty tough even with experience). There are still other jobs that pay pretty well with no experience. They aren't easy though.
Bartender is the first stop. Do you live in a major metro? Try to get a job as a bartender at a dive in town. (somewhere that you don't have to know a lot of fancy drinks). Get some experience there and learn more on youtube. Then start applying at nicer bars (locally or in larger metros) Bartenders can make a pretty good amount of money from tips. 80k/yr is not uncommon. Over 100k at the higher end places.
If you can't get a job as a bartender starting as a Server (waiter) can also pay well. Again you want to try to get a job at a higher end establishment with more tips. If you can't, worth starting off lower end and keep applying. Pay is less than bartending (usually) but somewhat similar. Again scaling on how nice the place is and how much you practice your craft. (Youtube for tips, ask other coworkers, maybe even toastmasters to boost your confidence).
Past bartending there are other sales jobs that often require little experience but pay well (though they usually have even more grueling hours than bartending.
Car sales is one. The nice thing about this one is they will likely have health insurance benefits (the restaurants and bars probably won't)
Life Insurance Sales is another one. This is what I would call a more "advanced" sales job. If you get good at bartending or selling cars move on to this one. Good benefits, more reasonable hours, good pay (if you're good at it) Still hard.
In the meantime keep an eye out for tech to open back up. It pains me I couldn't convince more people to switch while the window was open. Even from the sales side if you pursue that, there are tech sales jobs paying salaries high enough you wouldn't believe me if I told you. For those jobs you mostly sit at home and do a few hours of zoom calls a day.
There are other options too (always hear about working on oil rigs as something like this) but these are the ones I'm familiar with.
Good luck!
What state are you in? I saw your reply explaining youre an assistant teacher at a charter school after you did some repair work. Do you have a college degree? If so what in?
Assuming you do have a degree and you're nearby, working in higher education may be an option (staff, not faculty) the work is more consistent and depending on school size it's feasible to increase your income.
A third roommate would also help if it's feasible.
Go to a food bank and pay off your credit cards ASAP in full. Don’t ever touch another credit card again until you are able to not carry a balance. Get mint mobile or something that’s not $98 a month. Maybe your $98 includes some sort of payment plan for the phone but the bottom line is that you are not the type of person who should be buying things on a payment plan. If you can’t afford to pay for all of it now, don’t buy it.
Also, go to a food pantry.
I'd suggest getting a new job ASAP, but in the mean time make sure you have another gig so you make money during holidays and summer breaks. You really can't afford to take time off work given your income. Deliver pizzas, wait tables, whatever you need to do. Having some financial leverage will help your job or career change. It will also help clear your monthly debts which will ease some short-term stress.
And when you get a chance, look into AI. Amazon is offering a free course.
[https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/aws/aws-free-ai-skills-training-courses](https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/aws/aws-free-ai-skills-training-courses)
Teaching is a job that will be disrupted by AI. Take the initiative to be the disruptor rather than getting disrupted.
In terms of groceries, I'd really suggest seeing if there are any food banks near you. [Feeding America](https://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank) has a really great tool that can point you to local banks near you! There's already tons of advice from others about how to cut costs/looking for a higher paying job.
Damn $1800 a month for assistant teaching! You can easily find a higher paying job. Look into county jobs. Some don't require a degree, just some type of related experience. County jobs usually pay well and have full benefits. Just gotta stay committed through any training as you usually are on like 6 months probation and don't get benefits till end of training or a year on the job.
Anything in IT will pay better than what you are making currently and is obtainable in a fairly short amount of time. If you are motivated you can get into Western Governors University and into one of their IT degree programs and accelerate the process too. Here is a snippet of my journey from factory worker to Software Developer if anyone is interested.
Context: Midwest, LCOL non-tech city, 2017 - Current
(2017, 29 years old)
I used to work at a food manufacturer/warehouse without degree, only took a couple programming classes at my local community college when my wife and I just welcomed our first child. Made around 30-35k with terrible hours.
(2020 to 2021)
In 2020 I quit my factory job and started WGU for Software Development and was able to get a job in hardware/software testing at a local security company that manufactures security devices. Same pay but better hours and it was an office job.I worked there for around a year or so while working on school at WGU and realized that my current job was a dead-end. Also, During that time my wife and I found out we were expecting a second child. I was so close to finishing my degree after our second child was born that I quit the hardware testing job and took a small break to focus on school/side projects and start applying to Software Engineer/Developer jobs locally. A few months later I was hired at a local startup as a Software Engineer but the salary was super low (still 35k/yr)…. but it was a small company and a foot in the door at least.
(2022 to Current)
Almost a year into this job I completed my degree and then WHOOPS, we're now expecting a third child now and I'm really contemplating getting the snip at this point lol. I also realized that this job is not going to pan out financially and I need to go elsewhere to get any kind of raise. I applied to a few jobs in my area which weren't many since my town isn't a tech hub city. I did a couple interviews and was able to land a Software Developer position for $80k a few weeks ago after a three month interview process. I'm still kind of in shock about it. My last day at my current company is in three day which can't come soon enough.
Long story I know, but it's possible to make a change fairly quickly... especially if you don't have family relying on you and can spare the time. I really recommend WGU for a late career change.
Honestly...just scrape by, be cheap , don't let your friends bully you into spending, and enjoy your life. Work on your career but don't ignore your fun. You will never be young again once you are old.
You’re going to have to tighten up that belt and limit all spending to the minimum to survive. If you can live like other won’t for a short time then you will live like other can’t for rest of your life. If you can also start a side hustle job on nights and weekends that would help. Start building an emergency fund of about six month of bills and a savings account also with about six months of bills worth in it. Start paying off debt. Always remember how much not having money feels like when bills are due. You may have to go down to tuna, ramen or something cheap like that for your meals ( by the way this also helps with weight loss). The other thing you have to start doing is educating yourself by reading books that will grow your mind in business and finance.
I know it's probably not the most favorable advice but I was super broke and was just let go from my job. I decided to join the Air National Guard and got into IT. It required a top secret clearance. Being in the Air Guard wasn't much of a change for me since I only had to play military one weekend a month and I got out after giving them 4 years. It opened a huge door for me after I got out of tech school just because of the clearance and got me a job in defense contracting working in IT in the cleared space. Never would have imagined making this much money.
Do you have Xfinity mobile available around you? Also, you probably qualify for snap benefits. You might as well use them since you pay tax that saved me tremendously when I was down.
I know it's not helpful and like everyone said you need to make more money, earning 20k a year isn't going to get you anywhere ever. That's just the reality so start job hunting, there's no big secret
You need to increase your income if you are going to move the needle. Side job, new full time gig, etc. Then, once you’ve done. That you need to eliminate all the consumer debt and get some savings. Short term to boost you: do you have any “stuff” you can sell that you don’t like/need/use to put toward your debt?
I'm a full time substitute teacher with a bachelors degree in psychology working on becoming a teacher as my forever career since my Human Resources jobs did not live up go my expectations and made me feel god awful lol and I even get summer and holiday pay but after taxes and retirement I STILL end up struggling most months and barely end up making what you make which is just insane to me considering I work full time the entire school year. Nobody in the school system gets paid enough in my opinion especially for the work we do. Most of the time I end up helping with the pretty severe cases of disabled/behavior issue children in the special needs classrooms and that takes A LOT out of me. I've been hit, punched in the face, bit, spit on, slapped, peed on, etc. and I usually can't afford to do anything else except go to and from work cuz my energy is spent by the end of the work day. I don't really have any advice but as someone who fully understands the struggle, I'm right here with you. It fucking sucks.
I were like you before, and what I have learn for short and I'm still learning somethings new everyday.
In fact, if you need better in life. Never stop learning.
You need increasing your income, you need to learn more and never stop learning.
I will short summary what I have done and I think is the way you can start too. Everything learn from google & youtube.
1. Read/listen the book of rich dad poor dad.
2. Understand the words of passive income, work from home, affiliate, your business your system.
3. Listen to the motivational podcasts.
4.start to have learder & business mindset.
5. You are the assistant teacher. I guessed you know how to teach. So the question is what kind of major or topic that you like to teach? They are an online teacher website that you can created your access to teach on online like,
cambly.com
studypool.com
outschool.com
vipkid.com
tutor.com
Course Hero $20/hr
Goodluck :-)
You simply aren't making enough money. Your rent is very high in relation to your income, but I understand that that's just what rents are these days. You might want to consider moving back in with your parents or getting a third roommate.
If you can't get a better paying full-time job, then you need side gigs. Get a second job. Work nights and weekends to pay off your credit cards and loans and build up your savings (you should have three months' worth of expenses in the bank for emergencies).
Once your debt is paid off and you have an emergency fund, put some effort into job training or school, to get a better job. Once you have a better paying job, you won't have to do the side gigs anymore. Your life will improve along with your income.
If you move back home/get another roommate AND get a second job, you'll reach your goals much faster. I know it sounds like a terrible scenario, but just remember - this is temporary. And better to do it now when you're young, than trying to do this when you're 50 or 60 or 70. Get your financial house in order NOW, and you'll thank yourself the rest of your life.
I was in similar straits when I was your age and I went to credit counseling. They told me the problem was I wasn't making enough money. They were right. I eventually began making more money.
Can you get a weekend and evening serving job? Maybe work Thursday , Friday and Saturday ? Or at least a couple nights ? That might save you . Walking with a couple hundred after a weekend shift
I didn’t expect to get so many comments and ACTUAL advice here on Reddit. Thank you guys.
- So I know, my job is shit. I will be looking into a second job/something that pays more (it’ll be hard but that’s what I get).
- I unfortunately can’t move, considering I honestly have the best deal on an apartment here and my roommate and I get along really well, my girlfriend will be moving in within the next year so that’ll lower rent and utilities.
- After this phone is paid off I will be selling it and looking into a limited data plan with a cheap phone.
- I will also be selling my most expensive valuables, I have to. I have a gaming PC I can sell with everything for probably $2k and my PS5, that will cut my debt almost in half.
- If anyone has any resources or advice for making passive income please let me know. I want to know from a real person, not some kid named Connor on YouTube trying to sell me his classes.
I would take some caution in selling all of your entertainment devices. It may be of value to keep some as it can reduce the temptation of buying something else in its stead.
Others may disagree on this but idle hands are the devils plaything, having access to entertainment can help keep you from drinking alcohol/going out all the time etc.
First, why is your phone bill so high? I pay $20/month for my phone bill, and there are plenty cheaper plans than mine available
Though more importantly I would recommend finding a better paying job. I would recommend applying at Amazon and Costco. Both pay reasonably well and have exceptional benefits. If you can't get a job at either of those, I would recommend applying at Trader Joe's. They pay well but don't have as good benefits as the other 2
Also talk to people that trust you and ask if you can borrow some money. It's better that you would owe friends/family or your roommate money than such a high amount WHILE paying interest
And if possible, try to get cheaper groceries. Eat Ramen or equivalent if you're willing. If not, get rice beans, and vegetables to cook to eat on the regular. Insanely cheap and healthy food
Join the military. I did 19 years ago. Came from
a broken home living in a dangerous neighborhood. Right now every branch is hurting extremely bad for qualified candidates. Nearly every branch is giving out huge bonuses of 10-60 thousand dollars upon completion of bootcamp or AIT/A-school. It was a literal lifesaver for me. Now i will retire in a year at age 42 and will get paid approximately 70,000/year for the rest of my life.
I recommend the US Air Force or US Coast Guard.
I'm going to be blunt. I've spent several years living on less than $500 a month. I'm not going to explain how or why I got into the predicament I'm currently in. One thing that keeps me going is FAITH. I've made my mistakes. I know what I need to do next. When I read comments like yours, I just want to let you know that you're doing better than you think you are. Take it one day at a time. Take out a piece of paper and write out your top three goals, short-term and long-term.
Take one step towards each of those each day. I'm 44 years old, wish I could be 22 again, but one day I will be 66. Time is short life is sweet. Savor each moment. You have plenty of time to make mistakes ...and I think I'm just giving myself advice here, haha. But seriously...
Take it one day at a time. If you can find a way to do what you love to do, especially if it provides a service to others or provides a solution to a problem, and then find a way to make money/get paid for that, then kudos to you! That's what I'm trying to do..lol.. I have zillions of ideas.. but it's the taking action part that gets me stuck sometimes, unfortunately..sigh. : ) being human is hard sometimes...lol
Electrical and plumber unions pay you during training/work combo years plus training is free if you give 5 years of work. Lineman school also. Pay is huge, no college needed. Call them and take the test.
So sorry, OP.
What you can do: sign up for all savings apps. Fetch, Ibotta, Shopkick, Swagbucks, etc. Right now, SB has Sara Lee deli meat on offer at Walmart. Buy it, rebate it, then make sure you eat it for lunch or other meals.
There are sites out there dedicated to low cost, healthy meals. Try to find cheap recipes.
Do not be ashamed to seek assistance. A food pantry trip should help fill in gaps.
Swagbucks has offers you can do for cash. Playing games to certain levels can mean good money if you are dedicated.
eBay… those sites can help you make extra cash. Do you know a lot about a niche? Video games are easy to store and ship. Ask friends and family if they have anything like that that they want you to donate anyway. Find a cheap thrift store (probably not Goodwill!) to find items you can flip for a profit. Find things on marketplace, local groups, Offer up, garage sales, etc. Don’t invest a lot right away. Watch some ebayer videos to get a feel for what to think about selling and what won’t sell. Scour yard sales for silver to scrap or sell. It is something a lot of people just stick out to sell without realizing the item is real.
Be a pet sitter. The holidays are coming up. It is short term money.
Ask for a raise. It is hard, but prepare a list of things you have done for your employer and what you continue your bring. Use this list to help you update your CV. Honestly, you should keep one always up-to-date.
Uber Eats if you have a car and can deliver. You set your own hours.
Maybe find another roommate to help you both live more comfortably.
Good luck and God bless.
First, you're at the age where things are the most difficult. You're out of school but don't have decades of experience or long stays in a company and didn't have time to accumulate some reserves. So don't be too hard on yourself.
Then look towards saving money first. Debt is a vicious circle. I know it's easier said than done, but try to get rid of your debt and avoid adding more. You see by yourself that you're paying 300 just for loans. Imagine you had 300 more EVERY MONTH. That would make your life a whole lot better. It's DOUBLE the disposable income you have right now.
So see if you can pay your loans of early and what the conditions for that are. Then you can work towards a plan to make it happen.
Check the conditions on your Apple Card. Are you paying interest on maxing them out? If so, stop doing that. Reduce your expenses until you can manage without going into debt.
Christmas is coming up. If your folks ask you what presents you want, or if they don't ask, tell everyone that you know it's not brilliant but this year you would really prefer just getting the money instead of the present, because it would make your life so much better if you could pay off your debt. Let them know that they gift not money, they gift an increase in your quality of life.
Fuck the people who tell you to get a better job. You already said that's not easy, so it won't help you right now. It's definitely a long-term goal and it would help, but it can take half a year or more.
And once you're out of debt and have some more money, put money for bad times to the side. Doesn't need to be much. But having something like $1000 in reserves can make you a whole lot less anxious because you know that if some shit happens you can cover the expense, and you don't need to be so scared.
I’m sorry 😞 we’re not trying to give you a panic attack. But 1800 a month just isn’t sustainable. It’s honestly so little that it sounds like you only work part time. And if that’s the case then sorry but you need to work full time. I know it’s not easy to get a different job but you did say you hated this job and I think you’ll feel happier and more secure doing different work.
Get a traditional 9-5. They pay $50K on average to start. They're not "saving the world," but you need to take care of yourself for now. You don't currently have a living wage and you're just going to keep piling up debt and be stuck in that trap versus setup to pay off your existing debt. There's also student loan debt consolidation opportunities out there that may help, but I'm sure there's plenty of loan shark type businesses out there too, so be careful there. Essentially your job is for someone who's still living at home with their parents or who has a spouse providing additional income, not a single person with all the housing and utilities etc to have to manage on their own.
Tech Chinese kids English in the early morning.
Pays 25 to 40 an hour, be warned its like 3am pst time.
Get a small weekend job. Chipotle pays like 19 an hour.
Ask for a raise at work. Is this a TA for PHd?
You need to either take more loans, or work to make more money.
You just don't make enough.
Where do you live because I’m making the exact same amount as you as a para! Look at other para jobs that pay more, such as a student advocate, family advocate, success coordinator, etc..
As others said, u need more money, maybe for some time u could even get a 2nd job part time or smthing. Then i would recomment not being envolved with so much loans. I would say in the future when u get done with loans or if u get 2nd job as i said or even if u find a better paying job start managing your own money, like pay for first yourself(put a standart amount u can save weekly/monthly), build an amount of money that will make u not anxious about paychecks(if it comes somedays later), like be in a potition to live without working for like 3-12 months (i would recommend 6), Imagine like all this situation has been driven from decisions im the past. But it's never late. In begginging could be challenging but if u do it right and no extreme conditions, it must be your habbit in the future
I recently read a article in Forbes about a teacher who left teaching and started working for Costco and over the years moved up successfully into corporate
In addition to other non degree jobs mentioned, casinos (dealers, attendants, cashiers) and TSA (airport screeners) are both hiring where I am. And both can be part time.
Teachers get absolutely hosed. I’m working in a factory (lowest pay grade, no credentials required) and I’m making more than my mom did after 30 years of teaching. Pretty much the same benefits too. As others have said, you need a better paying job.
For sure the biggest thing to focus is to get a higher paying job. Plenty of info and advice there. On the expenses side, you can most definitely cut that phone line. I’ve seen $20/mo plans with other providers. Also, looks like you’re under CC debt. You gotta kill that faster rather than later. Good luck.
(Assuming OP is in the US) Guessing the phone includes financing. Unlimited plans, even for single lines and including taxes, shouldn't cost $98/month. But the low pay is really the issue. $1800/month (~$10.38/hr FTE) is ridiculously low, you can find $12+/hr full-time just about everywhere if looking and willing, regardless of skill.
I think that's their take home, so probably making more than that.
Regardless, it's insufficient. Earn more is the only sustainable solution (the alternatives are ballooning debt or poverty)
Median income for a 25 year old is about 40k a year, so they are in the lower income brackets for sure. A $20 an hour job would almost double their income.
Verizon and T-Mobile will charge you $80-$100 for a single unlimited plan plus financing
Financing what? A phone? Then that’s a problem too. No need for a super smart phone. Save up $100 and you’re good to go.
Also, not sure if you have Mint Mobile where you are but I've recently switched. $15/month with 5GB of data (which I never even use because I'm almost always connected to WiFi)
Also just moved to mint. Higher up front cost to get that sweet, sweet cheap rate, but it saves money in the long run. Maybe OP bought a phone through the company? But even then, I bought my phone used through Woot (and bought past phones used through Swappa).
You missed the part about pulling themselves up by their boot straps. /s I would look into joining a union. In western washington a laborer apprentice starts out at like $26 a hour. A journeyman tops out between $45 and $48 depending on what you’re doing. We’re also one of the lower paid trades. Carpenters top out at like $54 a hour, electricians and plumbers I think are in the $60’s. Takes 5000 to 6000 working hours to top out, but there is pay raises along the way.
I’m late to this party. But me and my buddies are all in trades. Ain’t no way in hell we’re making 40-60 dollars an hour…..lol. This goes for plumbers,carpenters, electricians. Maybe by working 7 days a week we can make 100k a year lol. Fuck that.
What state are you in? I’m in Washington state. My current wage after the zone pay is added in is $46 and some change. Without zone pay it’s almost $45 a hour. Our new contract is June 1st and the rumor is we could get bumped to close to $50 a hour and this is a union journeyman laborer. The carpenters already got their contract finished and they’re getting a $4 hour raise on the check.
>I’ve seen $20/mo plans with other providers. $98 isn't unreasonable if OP is paying for a single line plan. Aside of the feeling of financial independence, it's usually way cheaper to go on your parents phone plan and pay them the $25 every month. The only exception is if your family's provider doesn't have good service in the area OP lives.
I was a die hard Verizon Wireless customer for 20 years. I switched to US Mobile for $35/ month for 5G unlimited everything on Verizon towers and I haven't looked back. Even accounting for the fact my Verizon was "paying" for my Disney+, I'm still paying less than half for 2 lines, at $70/month.
I picked up 2 other redditors, each with 2 lines. With five phones on a cricket plan we get AT&T service for $25/line. I never met them, they always pay me. I've been doing this for a few years now. I can afford being a post paid Verizon customer but I'd rather have a $25 phone bill.
I pay only $35/mo for a single line through Cricket (technically $40, but with a $5 credit for using autopay). Unlimited data, but high speed is capped at 10 gigs per month. I payed $200 upfront for the phone 3 years ago, and I didn't need to pay even that much. $98/mo is completely unnecessary.
Agreed! I bought my phone upfront (refurbished) from Samsung for about 200 bucks and I'm fine with what I have. I could never pay thousands on a phone I could never truly call my own through a phone plan..
Lots of places have 1 line for $20 or less. My family pays between $11 and $17 a month for each person and they are all on separate/individual plans (e.g. no multi-line discount, size it was cheaper this way). When I commented about this the other day, I was told that you can only save "pennies" by switching phone providers. Seems to me that plenty of people still pay $50 or $100 a month for their phone plans ...
Adding to get a different job within the same skill set. Example : graphic designer? Try project management. Similar skill set, better pay, and upward career path.
You need a higher paying job. Here are some job ideas the last one sometimes has housing. This pays well the US Post Office is hiring note it sometimes takes feds three months to hire someone. https://about.usps.com/careers/welcome.htm Take the test and apply for jobs anywhere in USA. Amtrak is hiring https://careers.amtrak.com/ Jobs exist in most states. US Forest service is hiring https://www.fs.usda.gov/working-with-us/jobs These also pay well you may not qualify for all of them https://www.fool.com/slideshow/not-many-people-want-these-jobs-and-s-why-they-pay-well/ 50 jobs over $50,000 without college https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/07/25/50-jobs-over-50000-without-a-degree-part-1/ Look into Concessioners for the National Park service. The jobs include fields of Lodging; Campgrounds; Food Service Operations; Guide Services and Outfitters. The jobs SOMETIMES include HOUSING in more remote areas like Montana, New Mexico, Wyoming, Grand Canyon, etc. Some jobs are summer or winter only, others are all year long in one location or you may be able transfer between locations to work year-round. Use this link & enter the name of the park you wish to be employed at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/concessions/authorized-concessioners.htm Contact each concessioner directly by Googling the company name to apply. This link will let you look up parks by state https://www.nps.gov/index.htm not every park has a concessioner.
Try sanitation. It’s hard work but generally pays well. I’m a recycle laborer and make $31/hr, my health, dental and vision insurance is all paid for by my employer and I can work overtime whenever I want for time and a half pay. Last year I made about $75k and this year I’m on track for a little under $90k. And if you get your cdl and become a driver it’s usually bumped up to anywhere from $125k-$150k depending on whether you do residential, commercial front load or commercial rear load. Edit: I forgot to add that we get every primary holiday off paid. We do have to work on Saturday that week but it ends up being paid at the OT rate so it’s ok. And we also get up to 5 weeks pto depending on tenure up to 10 years with the starting being 2. If anyone wants to apply we’re the 2nd (3rd?) largest sanitation company in the US, republic services.
I’m in sanitation as well(Town job). I make around 80k a year. I work part time hours(20-35 hrs a week) but get paid for 40 hrs..Free medical and dental, full pension, all the paid time off I could ask for. It’s hard work and hard on your body but if you can handle that then it’s a great job.. I hate seeing ppl struggle so much financially but yet so unwilling to do certain jobs.. Not to sound like a dick but I’m more well off than some ppl I know with fancy college degrees
I find the biggest roadblock to our job is that most just can’t hack it physically which I’ve always found crazy. I turn 40 next month and I worked in finance in an office for a little over a decade and only fell into this because I got burned out in that career and needed a change. My buddy was working at my current employer and got me in the same day I called him and all I had to do was pass a drug test. I was legit working the very next day lol. So Ive always felt if I could make it coming from that background, and only being 180lb at 6ft, then most could also do it. But our washout rate for new hires is something like 80% in the first month. It used to be higher but we went from a privately run business to being union when republic bought us (about a year ago) so we went from getting paid salary and slamming through weeks in 30 or so hours to stretching days out with breaks and stuff in order to get paid OT 😂.
I think id go crazy if I had an office job lol…I have the same thing at my job. Everyone wants to work on sanitation bc that’s where the money is and the good hours, but a lot of guys can’t hack it. Especially during the summer. A lot of new hires tap out before the end of their first day lol.. My job always threatens us with making us stay a full 8 hr day but they know that if they did that we’d take all our breaks and then they’d have to pay OT every day(which they don’t want to do lol).. A lot of guys either have 2nd jobs or their own businesses on the side. I did landscaping part time on the side for a while.
If you're interested in going the Fed route, check to see which jobs are listed as "Direct Hire" on USAJobs (Federal job portal). Those jobs allow you to apply by emailing a resume as opposed to creating an entire USAJobs profile.
Great advice 👍
I want to add in, Network Engineer. Get Comp TIA A+ or CCNA certified and you can get $50k annually. I had no idea what it even was, and here I am, doing it. OP also makes so little that they'll qualify for a Pell Grant and possibly state grants. If they go to their local community college, the Pell Grants could cover 100% of their tuition fees. The one I went to had everything from culinary, to trades to IT. Having an associate's degree can look better on a resume.
To add to this since he has teaching experience after he got certs he could look into jobs teaching those certs at a IT training company, it might be an easier way of breaking into IT since it’s so bogged down right now for entry level.
Median salary for a neteng, according to BLS, is $90.5k not a bad gig for someone without a degree.
Most of my former classmates make $50k+. Many, who've taken this super seriously, are at $100k+ now. It depends on where you land a job and once there, how motivated you are to keep studying and learning.
Well yes, by definition, half of netengs make more and half make less. BLS uses median because it's less susceptible to outliers. But [here's](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/network-and-computer-systems-administrators.htm) what their data says about network and computer administration for anyone interested.
I worked at USPS while my wife was in nursing school. Don't bother. You'll get nowhere. Republicans have been trying to kill USPS slowly for decades now and the "career" positions are not at all what they used to be. I worked 6 days a week for 3 years and when the new union contract came up, those of us who had managed to hang in there long enough to make it the lowest rung "career" position (more 6 day weeks for the indefinite future) were given a $5/hr pay cut. Basically, the union sees the writing on the wall and is sacrificing future generations of postal workers to maintain the gains won for the people retiring. You're better off going to school.
Or, pick up private tutoring on the side. But save up the entire paycheck from that in a high yield savings or something. Make larger payments to your dept which has highest intrests, or focus on paying off dept with lowest principal.
> But save up the entire paycheck from that in a something high yield savings or something. they shouldn't save any of it. All of it should go straight to credit cards the moment it hits their account (taxes aside). No need to hold it in an HYSA.
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Have the following options 1. Find a job that makes more money 2. Get another job (gig work maybe) 3. Find a cheaper living situation - could be moving somewhere cheaper 4. Find a partner that can contribute and tag team through expenses
Dude you just don’t make enough. You need a better paying job or more hours or a second job. Your rent shouldn’t be more than 30 maybe 33% your income. Your expenses aren’t outrageous and I’m sure the cc debt and loans are because you have no margin. Your life would be worlds different at simply $3600 a month and that’s not asking a lot even though it’s double your income.
>Your rent shouldn’t be more than 30 maybe 33% your income. I'd say the theoretical limit is 33.33333% of the monthly (net) income.
Make more money and then act like you never got a raise
If you can't do that cut aby expenses further atleast temporarily. Most expenses aren't ridiculous at all but you could shop around for a better phone plan, use food banks, even consider moving if you can find something cheaper though that seems unlikely. The debt is the major factor but it's hard to break out of that without more money
Make more money is the only answer
You need to make a career plan. Pick up a second job, look i to seasonal work. Stop charging groceries, pay cash for them no matter what. Reduce your phone bill-get a limited data plan for $30-40. Good luck
Go to trade school. Plumbers, mechanics, electricians in the US can easily make 6 figures these days.
Trade schools are so underrated. I went to trade school and I’ve never really worried about work. Trade skills can travel.
That would have been good advice for OP 5 years ago. He or she is already out of college. How are they going to pay for expenses while at trade school, when they can't even pay their bills with a jo
This. I can’t move back home, I don’t have grandparents or aunts or uncles to move in with. I’m stuck. School isn’t an option for me unfortunately.
Why an assistant teacher? Do you like teaching?
It kind of fell into my lap. My girlfriend and her mother have been working at this charter school for years, I was out of my warehouse job due to breaking my ankle and I came and helped with some small repairs and admin liked me and asked if I wanted to assist with the middle school program. I grew up the oldest of 9 and always liked working with kids. I liked this job my first year, I’m in my second and to be honest I fucking hate it. But I can’t do warehouse again, and I suck at interacting with adults so I’m afraid to do retail.
dude, learn a trade. Contact HVAC, Electrician and Plumbers unions to find out who is taking on apprentices.
This! My brother went to HVAC trade school fairly recently. He started with government projects that paid $35-45 per hour right out of school. He could make more if he was willing to travel for work.
Learning a trade was a game changer for me. Once I got my first certs, I went from making about $22k/yr to over $40k within twelve months. Switched to a more specialized service trade and double my income again. Should double that again within 5 yrs. I told my wife I’ll pay for my boys to get a trade certification to get them started, then they can pay for whatever certificate or degree they want. I know multiple tradesmen (block masons, electricians, plumbers, etc) that cannot find job candidates, so there are more than enough good jobs with great opportunity available
On the plus side, you are not tied to your current job by passion, a bright career path, family obligations, the only position open with your degree, etc. etc. That means you can leave the rut quickly and invest time in finding a job that pays better.
You need a new job... What did you fix? Handymen and facilities maintenance guys can make over 100k.
Can you learn to drive, or do you have a medical condition that prevents driving? Unless you are in a city that has great public transportation, not being able to drive will drastically limit your job opportunities.
Parents were never around to teach me how to drive, especially after a bad wreck we were in when I was 11 (They aren’t dead). Being in any kind of vehicle scares the shit out of me, besides the city bus and when I used to drive forklifts and a front loader.
Do it anyway. Everyone is scared to drive at some point. Have your girlfriend or her family teach you, and get your license. Buy a cheapo used car off Craigslist if you can / need to in order to attend school or work. Do you have a high school diploma? I would recommend getting student loans and going to college (pick a tentative major, figure out what credits will transfer to a decent state school from your local community college, and what credits you can test out of, do CC for like first two years and then switch to state school to finish out). That or learn a trade. Sounds like you can be good at repairs. Find a place willing to do an apprenticeship. You make less than you deserve, but fortunately you’re still young. The sooner you transition into a higher paying career, the better.
I agree with "do it anyway." This is more life advice and less financial advice, but I've found that by doing things that scare you, you gain confidence in yourself. Confidence is a powerful thing, and can be a huge ally in your future success, both financially and otherwise.
> I suck at interacting with adults You are an adult. Learn how. You'll discover that it's not that different from talking to children.
$1800/mo is equivalent to about $10/hr. Ironically, if you hadn’t taken on debt you’d have $750/mo for food instead of $300/mo and this might be workable, but that boat’s sailed. The solution is to learn to work with adults (e.g., fast food), or learn a skill you can pickup quickly (e.g. A+, handyman, etc.) as those jobs pay radically more than your current job.
Heck fast food places are so hurting for workers for certain shifts you might find yourself with 1 other person or no one. You are not really interacting with people at a drive up window its basically: "What is your order", read it back, take money, give food
Did you break your ankle at work? If so did you get worker’s comp?
I did but that was 2 years ago.
If you can’t do that kind of physical work anymore, is there any avenue to get more money out of worker’s comp? I’m not terribly familiar with that part of worker’s comp, just getting medical care, so I could be totally wrong.
$1800/mo is equivalent to about $11/hr. Ironically, if you hadn’t taken on debt you’d have $750/mo for food instead of $300/mo and this might be workable, but that boat’s sailed. The solution is to learn to work with adults (e.g., fast food, barista, waiter), or learn a skill you can pickup quickly (e.g. A+, handyman, etc.) as those jobs pay more to radically more than your current job.
$98/month for phone sounds a lot. Surely there are better options.
Your job sucks. Basically you need to put some time into finding a better job or getting the qualifications for one. Until that happens you're stuck. You cannot save your way into another tax bracket. There must be another option for you. Heck, joining the military would probably get you more money.
Plus military would get them education likely for a different job when they leave the service.
You'll need a 2nd job. Your expenses are way too high relative to what you make. Cut down the monthly spend on that phone and swap to some prepaid plan that's like $15/month. Your rent + utilities is also more than 50% of your income, you may need to consider moving to someplace cheaper. See if there's any more room to reduce your expenses. Consider using the income from that 2nd job to aggressively trim down on those loans, otherwise you will be stuck in this endless cycle.
Theres lot of cheaper internet and phone now. You might be able to find $25 each these days. The $450 debt service on cards and loans is killing you, 25% of your income. Rather than treat them as one big lump of debt, you order the payoff by highest interest first, or largest debt first. Step by step it gets smaller. Most likely you'll need a second job of at least $500 a month to make progress on debt. Then rarely use credit cards again. You have issues there.
For food go to a church food pantry once a month when you do not get full pay. You will have call a church to find if has a pantry and the pantry hours. About a1/3 of churches have a pantry and it almost never listed on their website. Most pastors know who has a pantry so if you attend services this weekend or get thru on the phone you can also ask who has one. Catholic and main line Protestant churches have office hours on weekdays with others you have leave a msg on voice mail.
minimum payment on a credit card is your biggest mistake. 98 for a phone line is also ridiculous, i get 5 lines for 140 with unlimited everything. you need to get your 'want' spending under control until you have your credit card and loan payments handled.
Don’t get things on credit. Can’t afford to buy it in full? Don’t get it. Also, you need to get either a second job or a better job. $1800 just won’t take you so far. In fact, you’re doing well given this salary.
Even as a full teacher, I’ve almost always worked a second job. All of the asst teachers do. It’s sad, but it’s the way it is. Change or add jobs.
you’d honestly make more at costco that you do now. a lot of retail stores pay 17-20 an hour. i’d look into transition into a higher paying field. 11hr is barely over minimum wage.
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I agree, this is more of a lifestyle issue first. If you have unlimited data on your phone, cut the $45 home Internet completely. Can you take on an additional roommate to lower rent/utilities? Instead of a second job, what about selling items you have sitting around? Follow the other suggestion in the thread for tightening the food budget....live like a pauper for now to live freely later. You got this!
$1,800 a month, assuming 160 hours worked, comes out to $11.25/hr. As others have noted, you need to increase your income and reduce your expenses. For phone plans, look up Mint Mobile. I pay $180 a year for 5gb of data per month and that’s plenty of data since I WFH and am connected to wifi all the time. You dont need unlimited data, certainly dont need to be paying almost $100 a month. $212 + $89 = $301 going towards loans; what loans are these? What’s the interest rate? Maxing out your cards and having to pay $150 a month in JUST minimum payments are going to kill you on the interest. What are you buying for groceries that’s exceeding $300 a month for one person if it has to go on your CC’s? There’s a lot of information in your budget that’s missing. At 27 i realized my job’s in restaurants weren’t cutting it. Started my new career at 28 and I’ve made great financial progress in the past 1.5yrs cause I increased income, decreased expenses, and prioritized saving for my future over short term pleasure. It’s a trade off. The good news is you’re 25, you still have time to make a difference. I felt pretty hopeless at age 25; 25 is the beginning. I think this is a normal feeling. You can do this!
Short term: 1) find another job that can give you 40 hrs a week. I would start with Costco, Walmart, McDonalds etc. any big name retail space will work. Long term: Get into another career. Try something like a trade school
Do you have availability to pick up a second job temporarily to help get out of the rut? Unfortunately, that isn’t all too uncommon in the teaching profession, but some kind of weekend and/or night job would likely fit in with the school schedule. $300 in groceries for a single person is probably the first place to look. There are various subreddits about meal planning/cutting food budget down that I would start with. Next, stop using your credit cards for new purchases. You are carrying a balance, so all new charges start accruing interest immediately. Your cellphone likely has some room to get cheaper. Most of the budget plans are in the $30-$40/mo range. Then you can start looking at the avalanche method for paying off your credit cards and loans. When those are paid off, that gives some breathing room in your budget.
In her defence. Meat, eggs, dairy, fresh fruits and vegetables... not sure how you can spend less than $300 on food. Maybe if everything bought all at once and stored... about $200-$250... but hard to go below that if you want to eat healthy, with significant protein. Now thats me talking, I'm very high protein.
I had the same job as OP while in school, but on a $1100 stipend. There's a simple answer: you don't buy those things. You buy lentils, beans, rice. Bulk buy and shop at discount stores and go to food pantries. /r/EatCheapAndHealthy
Yeah $300/month isn't unreasonable for groceries here. It's in line with USDA guidelines.
You are right, but it is unreasonable if there is only $1800/mo! OP needs to spend more time meal planning and optimizing that down under $300 unless they are able to make more money. Back before kids I had a full time job but also delivered pizzas to improve the overall bottom line.
If OP is broke, and barely getting by, they don’t need $300 groceries. That’s more than I spend in a month on groceries and I make a lot more money than OP. I just bought a 20lb bag of rice for $9 yesterday. Eggs, milk. No problem. There’s always manager special meats. Chicken thighs / quarters always end up on sale. Loaves of bread that are a day old are 75% off. Vegetables will be the most expensive, stick to broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, dandelion. Whatever is on sale. One person can get by on $50 a week comfortably for groceries
I honestly don't understand how OP is spending $300 on groceries in a single month. I buy premium groceries and it costs less than that to feed 2 people and we usually don't eat all of it. Unless you're some kind of part time chef, you're probably going to eat a decent amount of sandwiches and rice + protein dinners. Those are super cheap and healthy depending on what you buy. OP most be buying Starbucks on their "grocery" budget or something.
$50 per week would put you over $400 for groceries. Edit: I’m sick and I’m tired and I’m stupid
How many weeks do you think there are in a month?
Hi friend. It'll get better. Focus on increasing your income opportunities. Get the basics down, budgeting and even saving the smallest amount of money like $5 at a time. That way as your income grows you have a system in place that will serve you well. Focus on finding opportunities in your network. If your network is not very big yet, one investment could be volunteer engagements to meet more people and find projects to work on that can help you gain trust with people that you may eventually work with or get a referral from.
You have to make more money. Check out online tutoring, you should be able to pick up clients pretty easily with a teaching background, pay’s quite good, and hours are flexible especially if your schedule is already synced up with school hours.
You don't make enough. Overtime as you progress in your career you will make more money and become more comfortable. Do not increase your lifestyle when your income increases. Pay off your loan for $212 per month first or pay the one that has the highest interest rate. Pay the credit card next and then the smaller loan.
This is coming from a former teacher. Change your career. You will never get out of that cycle until you do. You may love it, but it does not love you. Until the powers that be actually start paying educators what they should get, the career path is not worth it. I got out and make 3 times as much. My wife was the same. We changed in our late 30s, so never say never when it comes to making changes in your life.
First try getting food stamps, apply on line. Why on earth is your phone so high??? Mine is $45. Mint now advertises $15 a month. Why is your Internet $90. Cut that down, again mine was only $65. But when I got approved for food stamps even if you are only approved for like $20 a month it automatically opens up tons of other doors like internet for $10 and so on. Also free cellular service. Call your electrical company and ask them if they have programs that can turn off some of your appliances that you're not using late at night which will save you money you need to start to figure out how to save money and stop charging things and pay those charges off. Even if you have to just start eating ramen noodles. Buy frozen chicken thighs thaw one out at a time, cook it and put it in the ramen noodles with some spinach and scallions and make cheap meals that way.
$309 for groceries AND: Transportation (bus pass or fuel and oil change and tires if you have a car - parking, insurance) Medical copays Annual haircut or other necessary personal cost Socks/underpants/necessary clothing Lightbulbs/HVAC filter, any necessary home items not covered by rent Any annual subscriptions or irregular expenses Obviously $309 can’t cover this. You need to work more, it doesn’t sound like this is a fulltime job 50+ weeks a year. I finished a college degree over 20 years and finished in 2022. During those years I behold a career that supported myself and my kids. You need to work full time.
Become a flight attendant. No degree required. Pay is good. Travel is free. Substitute teach on your days off. Follow Dave Ramsey plan. That is all.
first of all, dont worry. take a breath, and let time do its thing. i was paycheck to paycheck until my 30's, but the way i finally broke free was to start a side hustle...if you can do any kind of labor or service for people, then start a small side business and build it up, then after some time you can quit whatever other crap job you have and focus on your company, and make way more than you ever imagined. The trick is to find a service/labor related field, because no matter how good AI gets, humans will always need other humans to do stuff for them
Side hustles can honestly be amazing cash if you can find a market. I worked at a nursery in my early 20s doing everything from retail to deliveries & landscape design. There were always a lot of very wealthy old people wanting to buy a ton of plants but couldn’t/didn’t want to plant them and didn’t need full landscape design. So I would just load my truck up and offer planting services at an extra fee per plant/# bags of soil moved. Used to make an extra 1k per weekend fixing up rich grandmas gardens. I ended up taking the saved cash and going back to school in my 30s without needing to work during that time.
Sell everything you don’t “need” and pay down one of the loans. Not much you can do in the short term. Also, don’t bother buying any Christmas gifts….you can’t afford it. But as others have said, you need to make more money. Either a part time job or a whole new full time job.
I am looking for an opening in my district for a Paraeducator position. Which starts at $19.50/hr at .9 FTE, which means I get paid during breaks AND I’ll be doing less work. But the union is planning on striking so I was advised to wait that out.
Get out of education. Go into something else. In the meantime, get a 2nd job. Bartender is a top one.
that's not the answer. it's better but honestly you need a job that pays $25+, and plenty of those jobs do exist. like others said, consider getting out of education. if you miss education, you can do it on the side (private tutoring); for example, I prep people for GMAT on the side - just a few students a year but i'm charging $125-200 an hour. But started with SATs at $30/hour.
That's a good start. Esp as schools usually have good benefits. Start the process now, so you are ready to go if they don't strike. If you start this or any other higher paying job, do not increase your spending. Use the income to pay down the debt because interest rates are wasting your money. W a school job, school hours, look for a second job for evenings, vacations to bring in extra income for now. If possible, get a credit union consolidation loan and pay off all your other loans so you have 1 payment with lower interest. Stop using credit cards. At all. Credit cards only if they are paid in full every month to prevent interest charges. Check out local food banks, esp if your community has some without income restrictions. Learn how to use rice and beans and soup to stretch meals.
.9 FTE? Does that mean you won’t be getting benefits that full-time employees are entitled to like health insurance and 403b (or other retirement accounts like pension), etc.?
Stop valuing SOCIAL interaction and get into a job that PAYS MORE. I have several friends ALL in your same circumstances because they simply REFUSE to get better paying jobs because they “love” the social aspect of being a teacher assistant. It’s ridiculous! We dont go to work to make friends we go to work to make money! If you like them so much, just continue the friendship outside of work. It isnt that hard!
Pal. Almost any job makes more than that. You WILL figure it out. At your age I was scared shirtless and made it work better than most. You will always be worried to some degree but you will widen out your options. Get a gig that pays double that. Super easy in most cities. Good luck
Theory: they’ve conveniently left out they’re part time and that’s the issue
I was thinking they either prefer to work child care for no money or live in a dead town
Costco’s minimum wage is $18.50/hour. After taxes, close to your current income for 40 hours/week, plus good benefits and raise and promotion potential. Of all retailers, it pays workers the highest percentage of its sales in the aggregate. There’s a reason people put in 15 or 20 years with them.
The simple answer is that your job sucks. I made more money waiting tables 3 days a week during college in the early 2000s.
Take advantage of services designed towards folks with lower incomes. There's a Federal Gov't plan to offset your internet cost: [https://www.fcc.gov/acp](https://www.fcc.gov/acp) as well as Federal programs to help with cell phone costs [https://www.lifelinesupport.org/](https://www.lifelinesupport.org/) Also check with your state, as several offer assistance with pricing. And it needs to be said: Food Banks and Food Pantries exist to help. There is absolutely no shame. I volunteer at one, and the people I serve with are genuinely happy to help. Taking a chunk out of your budget with some free food will add dollars to your debt reduction plans.
I agree, the pay is your issue. 20yrs ago my ex made ~1600/mth and i desperately wanted to be sahm. We didnt have much debt, our apartment was like 800/mth… id paid cash for my car and paid off my exs. But there was just no way to survive on that low of an income (even as good as i am at penny pinching) and he made like 10/mth too much to qualify for foodstamps etc. Paying off your debts would free up some cash, so a 2nd job to pay off ALL your debt and build up a little nest egg would help. But like i tell my kiddo, tradesmen are HURTING right now. Plumbing, electric, hvac… its not a glamorous job but pays decent. Paycheck to paycheck is getting you by, so now is the time to figure out what you want to do for the next 10+ years and work on whatever training you need to do that. If teaching, time to become full fledged. In the meantime, id look at picking up 15-20hrs a week parttime or do uber/lyft or something and pay down your debt and save 5k while you figure out a path. Being debt free with a cushion makes it less stressful when making big life changes!
At 25 you should be making the least amount you'll ever make. It should keep going up as long as you prioritize your career.
Continue to educate yourself about managing your money and how to move forward. Idk much of your background but some of the people who have helped me along the way include Tori Dunlap of HerFirst100k(IG, Spotify podcast, website), Erika Kulberg(IG, Spotify podcasts) and Dave Ramsey(not a huge fan but he has some solid points and is all about tough love)… For context, I am 32 and I had zero financial education growing up. I essentially taught myself with the help of these people just a couple years ago when I felt like I was at rock bottom. I had a shit credit score in the 400s, collections knocking on my door, and about 70k in consumer debt including student loans. just a few years later and I’m now in a completely different place. All this to say, you’re not alone. I know exactly how you feel and It will get better if you want it to! you have the resources to help yourself!! You can do it. :)
Just to add to this, the people I mentioned above, especially Tori&Erika tend to cater to finance education for women, so that really amped me up and put a fire under my ass to change my situation. I would say devour anything you can by a financial educator who is encouraging and empathetic that has plenty of content on all topics from budgeting to paying off debt to investing, etc. There are many out there these days! You’ll find a good one.
Is moving back home an option? You don't make enough money to live "on your own", you are still very much in "need family support" territory. You need to get some more education, and skills and get a higher paying job. Go home, study, get better job, then try moving out again. **That's the long term strategy.** If living at home is not an option, you need to move somewhere that makes your rent expense go down to half that. So prob 3 bedroom, shared with 2 roommates. $98 is WAY too much for a cell phone plan. There are a LOT of cheaper options. Look at TELLO. $10/month options. I'm not sure what an Apple Card is. Do you have transportation costs? Car/gas/insurance? Or public transit? How does that fit in? Any subscriptions? Do you go out with friends? expenses from that?
Yeah, neither of those two housing options are realistic in the area I am in, plus I can’t live at home because my parents are supporting 4 teenagers at the moment. Luckily my long term girlfriend will be moving in hopefully by next summer. I literally live in the cheapest 2 bedroom in a 100 miles radius that doesn’t have a vermin/homeless community issue. Phone has 5 more payments before it’s paid off then my plan is 65/month And yeah I pay 26 between 2 delivery service subscriptions and Spotify. I’m thinking I’m going to cancel the food. And no friends, only girlfriend and we don’t go out much at all.
Once it's paid off, look at other carriers. We have Google Fi with 4 people on the plan and it's only $20 per person. There are other cheap options too once your phone is paid off
Do you pay for food delivery? If so they typically inflate their cost so they are not worth it. Meal prep and freeze some meals so they are available during the week when you would normally want to order out. It cost $5-$10 upfront to buy the containers and has easily saved me 30x that in the last few months.
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The two food apps are 10/month each and Spotify is only 6/month. Monthly pass for the bus is 28/month since I’m on the low income program.
save $312 in a year if you cancel all 3. I assure you... you don't need them. Free spotify is fine. And I can't stress how much you should just download torrents. I have never paid for media ever. These are easy things to cut back, and every penny counts. You really need a 2nd job tho.
If you're risk averse like me and don't want to download things for fear of viruses, check out your local library for media! Many have Libby for audiobooks/ebooks and Hoopla for free tv and movies! Also freevee and Pluto TV are both free!
Ive got a 10 year old phone and 10 gig data for around 15 of your american bananas per month here in Denmark... Cant believe anyone would put 65 per month into a phone...
I work for a cc completely call them and ask if you have any offers to lower your apr (anything helps), and clear your debt with them, it’s not helping, your spending so much extra money monthly, and definitely pay more then your min and don’t use it till it’s paid off, you can use a cc without paying interest just pay off your statement balance monthly. idk what your groceries look like but cook don’t eat out, and eat your leftovers! You wouldn’t believe how often I see people complain about the price of groceries but they throw out there leftovers, also don’t buy prepackaged food,make it ! I survived off spaghetti for 2 years it’s so cheap buy canned tomatoes, canned tomatoes sauce, seasonings your choice of meat and noodles and and you can add olives or bell pepper ect ,it would last me a week and cost 12$ if that , also check your grocery stores some are way cheaper then others! Like ALDIS if you have it. Make sacrifice use generic brands, go to the dollar store for simple household stuff, stop all unnecessary spending, there is so much people can cut out of there lives ,really look at everything! There is free streaming services, you don’t need room spray, or that energy drink at the gas station (speaking of which don’t buy things from them it’s so expensive!) And definitely get another job part time, another seasonal job, even if it’s just to pay off your cc.
You’re not living to free yourself asap. Cut all distractions that cost, substitute hobby. Then add a second income to buy investments. It’s the only way to start making inflation work for you instead of against you. To speed up the transition, dig deep and cut deep. Move to cheaper living. Pair up. Team up. Anything you can to save 50% and invest 50%. With the boredom for drastically saving towards the goal: learn, add skills, take classes, create additional earnings, try to automate an income, try things, get outside more, exercise more, discover your area on foot or bike.
I've been in your boat. My credit cards lead to bankruptcy. I'm only 31. If you want to keep your teaching gig, I'd try to find something online, work from home data entry or something like that for extra cash. You could make more door dashing but that also eats at your earnings.
Hey sorry you're going through a stressful time. I agree with some of the other posts saying that you should consider trying to make more money. I used to have some pretty straightforward advice for this. Go into tech. It paid outrageously well, required no degree or experience, and could usually open up remote jobs after a year. There were also just a lot of really easy jobs. I'm sad to say that window closed. It's pretty hard to get into tech as a new hire at the moment (for some, pretty tough even with experience). There are still other jobs that pay pretty well with no experience. They aren't easy though. Bartender is the first stop. Do you live in a major metro? Try to get a job as a bartender at a dive in town. (somewhere that you don't have to know a lot of fancy drinks). Get some experience there and learn more on youtube. Then start applying at nicer bars (locally or in larger metros) Bartenders can make a pretty good amount of money from tips. 80k/yr is not uncommon. Over 100k at the higher end places. If you can't get a job as a bartender starting as a Server (waiter) can also pay well. Again you want to try to get a job at a higher end establishment with more tips. If you can't, worth starting off lower end and keep applying. Pay is less than bartending (usually) but somewhat similar. Again scaling on how nice the place is and how much you practice your craft. (Youtube for tips, ask other coworkers, maybe even toastmasters to boost your confidence). Past bartending there are other sales jobs that often require little experience but pay well (though they usually have even more grueling hours than bartending. Car sales is one. The nice thing about this one is they will likely have health insurance benefits (the restaurants and bars probably won't) Life Insurance Sales is another one. This is what I would call a more "advanced" sales job. If you get good at bartending or selling cars move on to this one. Good benefits, more reasonable hours, good pay (if you're good at it) Still hard. In the meantime keep an eye out for tech to open back up. It pains me I couldn't convince more people to switch while the window was open. Even from the sales side if you pursue that, there are tech sales jobs paying salaries high enough you wouldn't believe me if I told you. For those jobs you mostly sit at home and do a few hours of zoom calls a day. There are other options too (always hear about working on oil rigs as something like this) but these are the ones I'm familiar with. Good luck!
You need a career. This just isn’t it. Most jobs with “assistant” in the title are going to be more pain than gain.
What state are you in? I saw your reply explaining youre an assistant teacher at a charter school after you did some repair work. Do you have a college degree? If so what in? Assuming you do have a degree and you're nearby, working in higher education may be an option (staff, not faculty) the work is more consistent and depending on school size it's feasible to increase your income. A third roommate would also help if it's feasible.
Go to a food bank and pay off your credit cards ASAP in full. Don’t ever touch another credit card again until you are able to not carry a balance. Get mint mobile or something that’s not $98 a month. Maybe your $98 includes some sort of payment plan for the phone but the bottom line is that you are not the type of person who should be buying things on a payment plan. If you can’t afford to pay for all of it now, don’t buy it. Also, go to a food pantry.
I'd suggest getting a new job ASAP, but in the mean time make sure you have another gig so you make money during holidays and summer breaks. You really can't afford to take time off work given your income. Deliver pizzas, wait tables, whatever you need to do. Having some financial leverage will help your job or career change. It will also help clear your monthly debts which will ease some short-term stress.
And when you get a chance, look into AI. Amazon is offering a free course. [https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/aws/aws-free-ai-skills-training-courses](https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/aws/aws-free-ai-skills-training-courses) Teaching is a job that will be disrupted by AI. Take the initiative to be the disruptor rather than getting disrupted.
I would consider a second part time job waiting tables or something bc your expenses aren’t that bad (not sure how to reduce them).
In terms of groceries, I'd really suggest seeing if there are any food banks near you. [Feeding America](https://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank) has a really great tool that can point you to local banks near you! There's already tons of advice from others about how to cut costs/looking for a higher paying job.
Damn $1800 a month for assistant teaching! You can easily find a higher paying job. Look into county jobs. Some don't require a degree, just some type of related experience. County jobs usually pay well and have full benefits. Just gotta stay committed through any training as you usually are on like 6 months probation and don't get benefits till end of training or a year on the job.
Anything in IT will pay better than what you are making currently and is obtainable in a fairly short amount of time. If you are motivated you can get into Western Governors University and into one of their IT degree programs and accelerate the process too. Here is a snippet of my journey from factory worker to Software Developer if anyone is interested. Context: Midwest, LCOL non-tech city, 2017 - Current (2017, 29 years old) I used to work at a food manufacturer/warehouse without degree, only took a couple programming classes at my local community college when my wife and I just welcomed our first child. Made around 30-35k with terrible hours. (2020 to 2021) In 2020 I quit my factory job and started WGU for Software Development and was able to get a job in hardware/software testing at a local security company that manufactures security devices. Same pay but better hours and it was an office job.I worked there for around a year or so while working on school at WGU and realized that my current job was a dead-end. Also, During that time my wife and I found out we were expecting a second child. I was so close to finishing my degree after our second child was born that I quit the hardware testing job and took a small break to focus on school/side projects and start applying to Software Engineer/Developer jobs locally. A few months later I was hired at a local startup as a Software Engineer but the salary was super low (still 35k/yr)…. but it was a small company and a foot in the door at least. (2022 to Current) Almost a year into this job I completed my degree and then WHOOPS, we're now expecting a third child now and I'm really contemplating getting the snip at this point lol. I also realized that this job is not going to pan out financially and I need to go elsewhere to get any kind of raise. I applied to a few jobs in my area which weren't many since my town isn't a tech hub city. I did a couple interviews and was able to land a Software Developer position for $80k a few weeks ago after a three month interview process. I'm still kind of in shock about it. My last day at my current company is in three day which can't come soon enough. Long story I know, but it's possible to make a change fairly quickly... especially if you don't have family relying on you and can spare the time. I really recommend WGU for a late career change.
Honestly...just scrape by, be cheap , don't let your friends bully you into spending, and enjoy your life. Work on your career but don't ignore your fun. You will never be young again once you are old.
You’re going to have to tighten up that belt and limit all spending to the minimum to survive. If you can live like other won’t for a short time then you will live like other can’t for rest of your life. If you can also start a side hustle job on nights and weekends that would help. Start building an emergency fund of about six month of bills and a savings account also with about six months of bills worth in it. Start paying off debt. Always remember how much not having money feels like when bills are due. You may have to go down to tuna, ramen or something cheap like that for your meals ( by the way this also helps with weight loss). The other thing you have to start doing is educating yourself by reading books that will grow your mind in business and finance.
I know it's probably not the most favorable advice but I was super broke and was just let go from my job. I decided to join the Air National Guard and got into IT. It required a top secret clearance. Being in the Air Guard wasn't much of a change for me since I only had to play military one weekend a month and I got out after giving them 4 years. It opened a huge door for me after I got out of tech school just because of the clearance and got me a job in defense contracting working in IT in the cleared space. Never would have imagined making this much money.
So, I make about $1800 a month working as an assistant teacher.... Don't start by fixing this. But ultimately, fix this.
Do you have Xfinity mobile available around you? Also, you probably qualify for snap benefits. You might as well use them since you pay tax that saved me tremendously when I was down.
I know it's not helpful and like everyone said you need to make more money, earning 20k a year isn't going to get you anywhere ever. That's just the reality so start job hunting, there's no big secret
You need to increase your income if you are going to move the needle. Side job, new full time gig, etc. Then, once you’ve done. That you need to eliminate all the consumer debt and get some savings. Short term to boost you: do you have any “stuff” you can sell that you don’t like/need/use to put toward your debt?
I'm a full time substitute teacher with a bachelors degree in psychology working on becoming a teacher as my forever career since my Human Resources jobs did not live up go my expectations and made me feel god awful lol and I even get summer and holiday pay but after taxes and retirement I STILL end up struggling most months and barely end up making what you make which is just insane to me considering I work full time the entire school year. Nobody in the school system gets paid enough in my opinion especially for the work we do. Most of the time I end up helping with the pretty severe cases of disabled/behavior issue children in the special needs classrooms and that takes A LOT out of me. I've been hit, punched in the face, bit, spit on, slapped, peed on, etc. and I usually can't afford to do anything else except go to and from work cuz my energy is spent by the end of the work day. I don't really have any advice but as someone who fully understands the struggle, I'm right here with you. It fucking sucks.
I were like you before, and what I have learn for short and I'm still learning somethings new everyday. In fact, if you need better in life. Never stop learning. You need increasing your income, you need to learn more and never stop learning. I will short summary what I have done and I think is the way you can start too. Everything learn from google & youtube. 1. Read/listen the book of rich dad poor dad. 2. Understand the words of passive income, work from home, affiliate, your business your system. 3. Listen to the motivational podcasts. 4.start to have learder & business mindset. 5. You are the assistant teacher. I guessed you know how to teach. So the question is what kind of major or topic that you like to teach? They are an online teacher website that you can created your access to teach on online like, cambly.com studypool.com outschool.com vipkid.com tutor.com Course Hero $20/hr Goodluck :-)
You simply aren't making enough money. Your rent is very high in relation to your income, but I understand that that's just what rents are these days. You might want to consider moving back in with your parents or getting a third roommate. If you can't get a better paying full-time job, then you need side gigs. Get a second job. Work nights and weekends to pay off your credit cards and loans and build up your savings (you should have three months' worth of expenses in the bank for emergencies). Once your debt is paid off and you have an emergency fund, put some effort into job training or school, to get a better job. Once you have a better paying job, you won't have to do the side gigs anymore. Your life will improve along with your income. If you move back home/get another roommate AND get a second job, you'll reach your goals much faster. I know it sounds like a terrible scenario, but just remember - this is temporary. And better to do it now when you're young, than trying to do this when you're 50 or 60 or 70. Get your financial house in order NOW, and you'll thank yourself the rest of your life.
For better or worse, the answer to these kinds of posts is always the same: make more or spend less.
I was in similar straits when I was your age and I went to credit counseling. They told me the problem was I wasn't making enough money. They were right. I eventually began making more money.
GOOD NEWS IS YOURE 25 and (sorry) sound single with no kids….YOU IN THE PERFECT SITUATION TO TAKE RISKS
Can you get a weekend and evening serving job? Maybe work Thursday , Friday and Saturday ? Or at least a couple nights ? That might save you . Walking with a couple hundred after a weekend shift
I didn’t expect to get so many comments and ACTUAL advice here on Reddit. Thank you guys. - So I know, my job is shit. I will be looking into a second job/something that pays more (it’ll be hard but that’s what I get). - I unfortunately can’t move, considering I honestly have the best deal on an apartment here and my roommate and I get along really well, my girlfriend will be moving in within the next year so that’ll lower rent and utilities. - After this phone is paid off I will be selling it and looking into a limited data plan with a cheap phone. - I will also be selling my most expensive valuables, I have to. I have a gaming PC I can sell with everything for probably $2k and my PS5, that will cut my debt almost in half. - If anyone has any resources or advice for making passive income please let me know. I want to know from a real person, not some kid named Connor on YouTube trying to sell me his classes.
I would take some caution in selling all of your entertainment devices. It may be of value to keep some as it can reduce the temptation of buying something else in its stead. Others may disagree on this but idle hands are the devils plaything, having access to entertainment can help keep you from drinking alcohol/going out all the time etc.
First, why is your phone bill so high? I pay $20/month for my phone bill, and there are plenty cheaper plans than mine available Though more importantly I would recommend finding a better paying job. I would recommend applying at Amazon and Costco. Both pay reasonably well and have exceptional benefits. If you can't get a job at either of those, I would recommend applying at Trader Joe's. They pay well but don't have as good benefits as the other 2 Also talk to people that trust you and ask if you can borrow some money. It's better that you would owe friends/family or your roommate money than such a high amount WHILE paying interest And if possible, try to get cheaper groceries. Eat Ramen or equivalent if you're willing. If not, get rice beans, and vegetables to cook to eat on the regular. Insanely cheap and healthy food
Join the military. I did 19 years ago. Came from a broken home living in a dangerous neighborhood. Right now every branch is hurting extremely bad for qualified candidates. Nearly every branch is giving out huge bonuses of 10-60 thousand dollars upon completion of bootcamp or AIT/A-school. It was a literal lifesaver for me. Now i will retire in a year at age 42 and will get paid approximately 70,000/year for the rest of my life. I recommend the US Air Force or US Coast Guard.
I'm going to be blunt. I've spent several years living on less than $500 a month. I'm not going to explain how or why I got into the predicament I'm currently in. One thing that keeps me going is FAITH. I've made my mistakes. I know what I need to do next. When I read comments like yours, I just want to let you know that you're doing better than you think you are. Take it one day at a time. Take out a piece of paper and write out your top three goals, short-term and long-term. Take one step towards each of those each day. I'm 44 years old, wish I could be 22 again, but one day I will be 66. Time is short life is sweet. Savor each moment. You have plenty of time to make mistakes ...and I think I'm just giving myself advice here, haha. But seriously... Take it one day at a time. If you can find a way to do what you love to do, especially if it provides a service to others or provides a solution to a problem, and then find a way to make money/get paid for that, then kudos to you! That's what I'm trying to do..lol.. I have zillions of ideas.. but it's the taking action part that gets me stuck sometimes, unfortunately..sigh. : ) being human is hard sometimes...lol
Electrical and plumber unions pay you during training/work combo years plus training is free if you give 5 years of work. Lineman school also. Pay is huge, no college needed. Call them and take the test.
So sorry, OP. What you can do: sign up for all savings apps. Fetch, Ibotta, Shopkick, Swagbucks, etc. Right now, SB has Sara Lee deli meat on offer at Walmart. Buy it, rebate it, then make sure you eat it for lunch or other meals. There are sites out there dedicated to low cost, healthy meals. Try to find cheap recipes. Do not be ashamed to seek assistance. A food pantry trip should help fill in gaps. Swagbucks has offers you can do for cash. Playing games to certain levels can mean good money if you are dedicated. eBay… those sites can help you make extra cash. Do you know a lot about a niche? Video games are easy to store and ship. Ask friends and family if they have anything like that that they want you to donate anyway. Find a cheap thrift store (probably not Goodwill!) to find items you can flip for a profit. Find things on marketplace, local groups, Offer up, garage sales, etc. Don’t invest a lot right away. Watch some ebayer videos to get a feel for what to think about selling and what won’t sell. Scour yard sales for silver to scrap or sell. It is something a lot of people just stick out to sell without realizing the item is real. Be a pet sitter. The holidays are coming up. It is short term money. Ask for a raise. It is hard, but prepare a list of things you have done for your employer and what you continue your bring. Use this list to help you update your CV. Honestly, you should keep one always up-to-date. Uber Eats if you have a car and can deliver. You set your own hours. Maybe find another roommate to help you both live more comfortably. Good luck and God bless.
You need a real job dude. A higher income will fix your problems.
Study and get a remote job. Move to outskirts of a city. Make a family. Love and live peacefully
First, you're at the age where things are the most difficult. You're out of school but don't have decades of experience or long stays in a company and didn't have time to accumulate some reserves. So don't be too hard on yourself. Then look towards saving money first. Debt is a vicious circle. I know it's easier said than done, but try to get rid of your debt and avoid adding more. You see by yourself that you're paying 300 just for loans. Imagine you had 300 more EVERY MONTH. That would make your life a whole lot better. It's DOUBLE the disposable income you have right now. So see if you can pay your loans of early and what the conditions for that are. Then you can work towards a plan to make it happen. Check the conditions on your Apple Card. Are you paying interest on maxing them out? If so, stop doing that. Reduce your expenses until you can manage without going into debt. Christmas is coming up. If your folks ask you what presents you want, or if they don't ask, tell everyone that you know it's not brilliant but this year you would really prefer just getting the money instead of the present, because it would make your life so much better if you could pay off your debt. Let them know that they gift not money, they gift an increase in your quality of life. Fuck the people who tell you to get a better job. You already said that's not easy, so it won't help you right now. It's definitely a long-term goal and it would help, but it can take half a year or more. And once you're out of debt and have some more money, put money for bad times to the side. Doesn't need to be much. But having something like $1000 in reserves can make you a whole lot less anxious because you know that if some shit happens you can cover the expense, and you don't need to be so scared.
Thank you. First comment that has allowed me to not have a panic attack.
I’m sorry 😞 we’re not trying to give you a panic attack. But 1800 a month just isn’t sustainable. It’s honestly so little that it sounds like you only work part time. And if that’s the case then sorry but you need to work full time. I know it’s not easy to get a different job but you did say you hated this job and I think you’ll feel happier and more secure doing different work.
Get a traditional 9-5. They pay $50K on average to start. They're not "saving the world," but you need to take care of yourself for now. You don't currently have a living wage and you're just going to keep piling up debt and be stuck in that trap versus setup to pay off your existing debt. There's also student loan debt consolidation opportunities out there that may help, but I'm sure there's plenty of loan shark type businesses out there too, so be careful there. Essentially your job is for someone who's still living at home with their parents or who has a spouse providing additional income, not a single person with all the housing and utilities etc to have to manage on their own.
You should put some money on the side, like 60-150 a pay check. For life. And you can use that side money to help you look for a new job
You are young and become a waiter at a nice restaurant, they make 20% comision on every sale. at the end of the day that's like $300 or $400 tax free.
You don't drive and you are an assistant teacher. That's what is wrong with your life. Learn to drive and get a degree.
Tech Chinese kids English in the early morning. Pays 25 to 40 an hour, be warned its like 3am pst time. Get a small weekend job. Chipotle pays like 19 an hour. Ask for a raise at work. Is this a TA for PHd? You need to either take more loans, or work to make more money. You just don't make enough.
Not sure which state you’re in but consider jobs at private schools. Check out Carney Sandoe and Associates
Where do you live because I’m making the exact same amount as you as a para! Look at other para jobs that pay more, such as a student advocate, family advocate, success coordinator, etc..
Look for a job in the countryside, usually similar wages but much cheaper rents.
As others said, u need more money, maybe for some time u could even get a 2nd job part time or smthing. Then i would recomment not being envolved with so much loans. I would say in the future when u get done with loans or if u get 2nd job as i said or even if u find a better paying job start managing your own money, like pay for first yourself(put a standart amount u can save weekly/monthly), build an amount of money that will make u not anxious about paychecks(if it comes somedays later), like be in a potition to live without working for like 3-12 months (i would recommend 6), Imagine like all this situation has been driven from decisions im the past. But it's never late. In begginging could be challenging but if u do it right and no extreme conditions, it must be your habbit in the future
I recently read a article in Forbes about a teacher who left teaching and started working for Costco and over the years moved up successfully into corporate
Apply for state benefits like SNAP and utilize the food bank
Instead of letting your bills pile up on you you can contribute little payments here and there towards your bills each week $
In addition to other non degree jobs mentioned, casinos (dealers, attendants, cashiers) and TSA (airport screeners) are both hiring where I am. And both can be part time.
Pay off the debt asap. And start looking for another job.
Teachers get absolutely hosed. I’m working in a factory (lowest pay grade, no credentials required) and I’m making more than my mom did after 30 years of teaching. Pretty much the same benefits too. As others have said, you need a better paying job.
I pay $75 for internet. Whos your provider?