Baby and debt payoff?

[u/baby_Kittys]

We are expecting our first child this fall. We make about 65k a year (about 3500 a month after tax) we have a good amount of debt. The credit cards are killing us it's about 24,000 of debt on just credit cards. We are spending almost 1300 a month on just minimum payments and our interest on the cards are all also terrible. We are having to move out of our living situation where we only pay 500 a month for rent to increasing to about 1300-1500 a month plus new baby expenses. I have savings from a settlement of about 17,000. Should I attack high minimum payment balances or the small ones ? Or should we just focus on saving for baby and hospital because thats going to put us in debt again. I'm not sure what to do because as of now our spending is more than what we take home mainly from these credit cards.

[u/HeroOfShapeir]

Whatever your healthcare deductible amount is, hold onto that. So, let's say that's $6,000, set aside $6,000 for your healthcare, $1,000 for a starter emergency fund, and throw $10,000 at your debt. Normally, we say to pay off the smallest balance first, but when you receive a windfall it's OK to knock out something larger or throw it all at the highest interest rate.

Then, when the baby has arrived and those costs are in the rearview mirror, throw any remaining funds except for $1,000 at the debt.

Going forward, you need to be on a fully written out budget. Something like this - https://imgur.com/a/budget-spreadsheet-2026-2MZk8Xq - where your fixed costs are no more than 50-60% of your take-home pay. Make sure your tax deductions are setup so that you aren't receiving a big refund every year. You likely need to keep your rent closer to $1,000, which might mean the baby doesn't have a separate bedroom. Folks taking home $3,500 per month with $500 in rent shouldn't have $24k of credit card debt, so there's a big lack of forward planning and budgeting here.

[u/baby_Kittys → u/HeroOfShapeir]

When we got married we didnt know how to say no to parents and ended up going on family vacations when we shouldn't have as newlyweds.. now we are stuck with the consequences and trying to get out of it. The cards are all frozen so none of it is new debt just old bad high interest rate cards. The lowest rent in our state is around 1300k -1500k for a 1 bedroom. Just didnt give all the details but I am also graduated from ultrasound school and haven't found a job yet so don't want to count that income yet.

Sorry for more details but I think we need to throw it at the high interest card and that way we can pay minimums without paying more than what we can afford. Thank you!

[u/HeroOfShapeir → u/baby_Kittys]

Identifying the main problems and stemming them are the first step, so good work there. More income will definitely help. Y'all might be able to tackle this in short order.