You can absolutely hang out with friends without spending a dime! A lot of times my friends and I just hang out at someone's home together and watch DVDs and play cards and listen to music and talk and laugh. Cost = FREE. It's important to spend time with friends, but it doesn't have to involve activities that cost money. When you're stressed out and struggling ,it's important (to keep your sanity!) to have moments when you can have fun and relax, so you shouldn't avoid socializing, just find ways to do it that isn't expensive, and your friends should be understanding of that too.

I'm glad you are ranting, that way I can simply say, waaaaaaaaaa! stop your whining.

you are doing a lot of comparing yourself to everyone else and you obviously are delusional in this regard, because not everyone's parents buy them cars, not everyone is doing much better than you, etc. While we are on the not everyone's parents bandwagon, not everyone has parents that will lend them money, will let them live with them until you get on your feet, etc. Seems to me, you have it much better than many people I know whose parents aren't so caring or helpful.

the good thing is that you realize that you've made dumb mistakes. The good thing is that you are young enough where the impact is minimal. The good thing is that if you look at your hands and feet you have 10 fingers and 10 toes and two good eyes to see them all. You have no idea the situation of everyone your age. there is quite many people in debt your age and giving appearances of being better off. there are quite many people who you might think are doing better, have a better job, etc, who are equally as miserable as you. the thing to realize is that your life belongs to no one else but you, so stop trying to live it as such.

for every person who seems to be luckily, there are 10 thousand more who have to make their own luck. you might just be one of among us that have to make our own luck. so be it, life ain't fare if you constantly compare yourself. i find a common theme here.

anyways, there is my rant to your rant. you are fine. you are young. you are healthy. you have family that care about you. you realize your mistakes. you are correcting them. it may take time, it may take a lifetime. find a niche that makes you happy and focus on that, and everything else follows.

there are lots of things you can do with friends that don't cost money.

congratulations, you're in the "hard work and sacrifice" stage of life that precedes success. when you make it, you'll appreciate it that much more for having made the sacrifices now.

or, you can refuse to change. your call.

Okay so put a number next to all of these costs, please.

I had calculated you at $700 per month left before food, gas, school, cellphone, etc. What are those numbers?

Gas: $70
Credit Card: ... is that $650 per month, or $650 total? Please say total.
School: ?
Cell phone: ?
Food: ?

Car payment - $276.00
Car insurance - $170.00
Credit Card - $650.00 total
School - varies, depends on how many classes I take at a time. It is not a constant debt or anything. If you need a number ~$500.00 per class, I'm going to be taking 2 classes in the fall.
Cell phone - paid for by parents for now, but the step dad is pushing for me to get my own. He'll probably lay off if I repay him for the tires lol.
Food - I can eat home for free, but I gotta eat lunch which is about 30 bucks a week. I can eliminate this by just bringing my lunch.
Rent- I am supposed to start paying $250.00 to my parents each month by august, I'm hoping they will drop this if I pay off my debt to them and show that I am trying to save money for when I move out in 15 months.

I plan to try and work at least 10 - 15 hours a month overtime as well as find a second and maybe even third income.

Goal is to have debt to credit card and parents payed off in 3 months, And at least 10k in the bank in 15 months. I will post updates as they come for those intrested.

Most kids do not get a car from their parents. That is an inaccurate statement.

A transit pass is usually somewhere in the order of $60 per month. Even many rural areas have transit services available. You should look into this. A perceived need for a car when it is really a want is a hallmark of American over-spending.

Well when you find me a bus that will pick me up at my house beacuse there are no bustops around where i live for about 5 miles, and take me to my work place which is on a country road in the middle of no where pretty much still with no bus stops and drops me off 10 minutes b4 my 10 hour shift starts at 6:30 am and then will pick me up a 5:00 pm and drop me off at my house in a timley manner, will i then consider getting rid of my car. Untill then kiss my hallmark butt lol.

So I had you calculated with $700 left before your other expenses..

$700 - $65 credit card (guessing your minimum is well below this) = $635 left

So that leaves with potential class costs, cell phone, food, and rent.

If you had to pay $250 for rent, you're down to $385.

For classes, let's say you take 4 classes/year = $2,000 = $166/month

That would leave you with ~$219 for cell phone and food.

If your cell phone was $50/month, you're down to $169 for food. Essentially breaking even for what you're doing now.

I would:
1. stop eating out and buy groceries. If I don't have a client lunch setup then I grab a banana and 2 things of yogurt at the store. Cost = $1.40 per meal (if you needed more food, add another banana and make it $2). Your cost per week would be $10 = $40 per month.

2. I would apply every last dime I had to the credit card debt just to get it out of my hair.

3. Start saving up money so that if/when your parents decide to start charging you for things (which they should since you are living for free), then you've got money set aside to pay for it.

Again I'm running under a bunch of different assumptions, but you shouldn't be go in the red from what I can tell -- you've got extra cash flow at the end of every month.

Edit: Just remembered paying your parents back for tires. I would knock out the credit card debt (what would that take you... 3-4 months?) then apply all of my money to paying them back.

Are you seriously putting forth a diet consisting solely of bananas and yogurt as a healthy, balanced way to eat?

A healthy diet simply demands more protein, grains, vegetables, and plain old calories than what you just described. I don't believe it's possible for an individual to get all the vitamins, nutrients, and calories they need to eat a healthy diet on $40/month. It simply cannot be done.

Don't misunderstand me - I'm agreeing that it's possible to eat on $40/month, if all you eat is ramen noodles and rice. I'm saying it's not possible to eat a healthy diet on $40/month.

kombat- that was for lunches only... not for all his meals ever. I can see where the confusion happened though. the original poster eats food his parents buy at home, except for lunches which he pays for eating out.

as for the lunch thing, I'd say go with banana, yogurt, and a pb&j sandwhich from home. Stocking up on the stuff you need for this wouldn't cost very much either. peanut butter and jelly are cheap (honey is even better tasting, in my opinion...).

I'm allergic to peanuts...

Since you originally posted this as a rant, allow me to impart the wisdom of the ages, as passed down to me from my father in classic rant rebuttal style.

"Excuses are like assholes, everybody's got one"

You've got about two dozen great ideas to improve your circumstances in this thread already, but if you want to miss the point, reject good advice outright or argue trivialities to support your lonely pity party all the power to you. If you can't figure out how to make a cheap sandwich that doesn't kill you then you're beyond any reasonable means of assistance, and if you were my kid I'd be charging you $250 a month for babysitting too.

haha perfectly said and im glad it came from a moderator

I'm with you. I was going to say 'Strap on a pair.' Glad I didn't. HA!!HA!!

I stoped ranting a week ago, All i did was inform the other poster that I was allergic to peanuts. You how ever are just a dick. So take these words read them and re-read them then when you fully understand them and grasp what it is that I am saying, you can go fu*k your self with them.

Thanks.