Average interest paid by Americans on credit card debt is

[CTyankee]

16. Any debt carrying interest over from month to month is what you pay off first, if you can.

If you can on a limited budget. I am facing the same problem. I now use a debit card but I have some cc debt and after our food and house needs, I have faced this issue by contacting some of my debt holders and working out a payment plan. My dental plan covered NOTHING of my emergency dental bill and I called my dentist and worked something out. DITTO the guy who does our taxes.

My goal is to live within my needs and here's what I did: at my age and retired: I just stopped buying new clothes when possible. Also, I don't need everything I see on Amazon but some items I can actually get cheaper there than on local store shelves. With free shipping it's even better! That is good use of your debit card and probably why they were started initially.

If you can, make paying down cc debt your goal. Cut down or just stop eating out. Plan your weekly menus in advance, using the week's special from your supermarket (we get an insert in our Thursday newspaper from our local Stop and Shop store). I am limited by an arthritic back as to how much time I can spend in the kitchen, so that is a challenge -- no complicated recipes!

The problem homeless people have is having to survive on lots of fast food. By definition, these people cannot cook up their own meals and save money that way. It is shameful that we even have homeless people, but til we get that solved, we must provide local government resources for them.