In the meantime you should eliminate all expenses you don’t absolutely have to have ie: cable television, entertainment such as eating out and watching movies at theatres. Curb your food preferences and eat more simply a few times a week. Its amazing how focusing on tailoring your expenses can really work in your favor so that you can more quickly pay off your bills. Figure out what you can live without and then give it the ax… at least for now. If you have a really high car payment, consider selling it and getting something real econimical until you are in a better position to pay high monthly payments for a car.

If you have kids, its a good time to teach them about living within their means and looking at their spending habits. Turn down your air conditioner and summer and your heater in the winter and turn off lights when they are not being used all year long. Every little bit adds up. If you can cut $200 a month (and that’s less than 10% of what you bring in… less than $10 a day!!) from your monthly budget by prioritizing and cutting down on unnecesary expenses you will have saved $2400 a year. This should go a long ways toward paying your bills and hopefully helping you catch up.

The thing about loans is that you will be paying interest on it. That probably isn’t what you really want. Especially if you are now paying interest on your credit cards. It just doesn’t make good financial sense.

Just having a spreadsheet of all my purchases and keeping goals in my wallet has saved me hundreds a month. You will be amazed on how much you can save if you plan your purchases beforehand, set goals, and keep a record of everything.