First, I would post this on the
Debt Dumpers thread. There's a lot of helpful folks there who helped me too.
I wasn't overwhelmed in debt and I still had a great credit score but I did have more debt than I should have had. They helped me to get myself organized with paying bills and be more careful with my spending. I have since paid off 7 smaller cards and working on the 2 biggies.
What helped me was getting a Discover card in my name & one in dh's name and did a balance transfer at 0% for 12-18 months. If all goes like it has been, we'll have it paid off before that time runs out.
The way I started was using Dave Ramsey's debt snowball method. First list all debts from smallest to largest, including any car payments, mortgage, etc.
Then create an emergency fund. They usually recommend starting with $1000. Put it where you can get to it, but not that easily that you would tap the ATM and use it for dinner out. This is good for when you have an unexpected bill such as the vet, your vacuum cleaner dies, car needs brakes, etc. you won't resort to charging your cc to handle the emergency.
Once your emergency account is funded, attack the lowest balance debt. Put every spare dollar you can to pay it down. All the while, only make the minimum payment on the others. Once the first one is paid off, take the monthly payment you were making on it and apply that to debt #2. This is in addition to the minimum monthly payment you have been paying to #2. Once that is done, you start on #3. Debt #3 will now be getting the minimum monthly payments from #1, #2, & #3. The amount you pay to bills keeps growing & growing as you pay bills off, hence the name snowball.
It's hard to get it rolling but once you do it's both enlightening & motivating.
Also look for every way possible to cut back spending. Some people cancel their cable & cell phones. DR goes as far as to recommend people stop funding their retirement accounts. I just can't bring myself to do that.
He also suggests if you have an expensive, new car that you're making payments on, sell it and buy a cheaper car that will free you of the monthly payments.
Also, are your kids school-aged? Would it be possible to get a little PT job while they're in school? I have a friend who worked 11am-3pm in a little pizza shop near her son's school. It wasn't great $ but it worked out well with her kids' school schedule. Since a huge part of their customers were teachers, she was able to take summers off and return in Sept when business picked up.
I would also see if your dh can pick up extra work with either a PT job or if he's handy, doing side work in the neighborhood. My dh does a LOT of this which eventually becomes our Christmas/vacation fund. People start telling friends & other neighbors and now dh gets calls from total strangers saying so-in-so recommended him.
