I was in almost the exact same scenario 22 years ago. I was 23 y/o and able to live with my parents for one year to get the debts mostly paid off. I should have lived with them for 1.5 years and paid them off completely. I also worked all day Sunday at a grocery store bagging groceries. Saturday was my only day off. The money from the grocery store wasn't much, but it helped put a dent in the debt and reduced my spending on the weekend.
Some thoughts:
- The most important thing is you're making a plan, more important than which debt you pay first.
- You're right to pay the $4600 debt first b/c it's at 22.4% and to pay minimum on cards with 0% teaser offers.
- You need a PT job and/or training for a job that pays more.
- It's less important, but try to get a bank to lend you the money at a low rate. Don't waste much time with this because it won't matter if you pay off the debts faster. (I got really upset when a bank denied me a loan, and in retrospect the loan wouldn't have helped as much as picking up more PT hours.)
You need a PT job or a better FT job b/c if your average interest rate is 12% and you want to pay off the full $15,000 you owe in 24 months, you need to pay $705. If you can pay $1000/mo, it goes down to 16 months. Ideally, you'd get it down to under a year by working your tail off. I remember thinking it felt like an ETERNITY working all the time. I was angry if I had any annoyances on Saturday b/c that was my only day off. But in all the PT work I actually had more interesting experiences and met more people than I did at the bars. If I could do it again, I'd try to work more... maybe searching harder for a higher-paying PT job and trying to have a more easy-going attitude that I'll either find a better job and pay this debt off faster or have interesting stories if it takes two years.
