A. Have a garage sale and sell anything that you no longer need or want.

B.Get a temporary part time job, if you have one, get another.

Here is a plan that can help you. If you work the plan, the plan will work for you:
1. Make a budget. Make the budget a week before you get paid. A budget is not a punishment! It is a tool which will free you from ever having to worry about money again. Put everything in your budget. Especially those annual, biannual, or quarterly bills like car registration, insurance, etc. Give every dollar you are going to bring home the name of where it is going. Add an “emergency fund” category to your budget for 25 dollars and save up until you have 1000-1250 dollars. Your emergency fund will help keep you from getting into new debt because of an emergency. If you can, set up a direct transfer to a savings account for your emergency fund. That way it moves automatically and you don’t even have to worry about it. You must cut your spending and live on less than you make.

2.First get current on all of you debts and make no more late payments. Stop using your credit cards immediately. Do not take on any more debt. Credit cards are like quicksand only the death is much slower. Make a list of all of your debts in order of highest interest rate to lowest interest. Use cash only for your spending from now on.

3.Pay the minimum due on all of your debts and then put your extra money towards paying off the highest interest one first. After you get that one paid off, you put the money you were paying on debt #1 (the minimum payment and the extra payment) towards debt #2. That will pay debt #2 off faster. When that is paid off, you put all three payments towards card #3 and that one will be paid off pretty quickly. As an example:

To start :
Debt #1 (highest interest): minimum payment+ extra payment
Debt #2 (middle interest): minimum payment
Debt #3(lowest interest): minimum payment

Debt #1: paid off
Debt #2: minimum payment from Debt #1+ Minimum payment from Debt #2 +extra payment
Debt #3: minimum payment

Debt #1: paid off
Debt #2: paid off
Debt #3:Minimum payment from card #1+ minimum payment from Debt #2+ minimum payment from Debt #3+ extra payment.

That way, you will get them all paid off, on time, and pay the least interest. It will also help towards rebuilding your credit since you will no longer have any late payments. This works no matter how many different debts you may have.

4. After you get all of your debts paid off, add to your emergency fund until you have 6-12 months of income saved up. Put that emergency fund money into a liquid money market fund or into a Bank of America no-risk CD so that if you need the money you can take it out without penalty.

5a. When you have your emergency fund in place, add a category for “fun” to your budget. Save for a holiday, a vacation, a big screen, or dinners out, whatever goal you want. Remember to enjoy your life.

5b. When you have your emergency fund in place, start saving for your retirement. Join the 401(k) plan at work and contribute the maximum. Your employer probably matches at least part of your contribution so why give up free money? Open a Roth IRA and contribute the maximum on a monthly basis. If you start saving for your retirement now, you will probably retire a millionaire.

5c. When you have your emergency fund in place, start saving for your next car. Only buy cars, or other things that depreciate, with cash. Save up for a nicer car. That way you get the interest instead of paying the interest.

You can do it and it isn’t as hard as you think. Just follow the plan

While using a credit/debt counseling service seems like a good deal on the surface, in reality it isn’t. It WILL hurt your credit and depending on the creditors you have, you may or may not get any breaks on your interest rate. And even non-profit organizations have to make their money somehow so there will be some sort of fee you would have to pay.

Your best bet is to do things on your own. You first need to set up a realistic budget. Again, you CAN do this on your own, or you could meet with someone and have them help you if it is offered as a free service. A word of warning … not all counselors or advisers are created equal. If they don’t ask you a LOT of questions about your expenses and if they don’t pick up on the little hints you drop that indicate something out of the norm, the budget they create for you will not be realistic.

For example, when I was a counselor, the budget forms we filled out for our clients were basic and of course had the “other” section that was supposed to cover items not on the form. So if I was counseling a woman and I noticed she obviously got her nails done on a regular basis, it was up to me as a counselor to ask her how much she spent on her nails. Most people don’t think about “little” things like that and since the form didn’t specifically ask about nails, most clients didn’t think to mention it and many counselors didn’t bother to ask. While one thing missed when setting up a budget might not throw it out of whack, if two or three or more items aren’t caught, the budget isn’t realistic and the payment plan they set up is doomed to fail.

YOU, better than anyone else, know what your true expenses are. The best way to really track this is tedious … but well worth the effort. For 30 days, write down everything (and I mean everything!) you spend money on … regardless of how large or small. (If you’re married or have a partner where expenses are combined, be sure you both do this!) That, combined with your regular bills, your periodic bills, and your debt payments will be what you base your budget on.

If you’re like most people, once you set up a budget you will realize you are “short” or at least confirm that there is “nothing left to pay the bills”. On the surface that is often true … but there are always places you can cut.

You just need to get serious about it and analyze every area of your life to see where you can make small changes that will add up. I created the Dollar A Day System just for people like you … people who want to get out of debt but maybe need a little DIY guidance on making it work.

Self debt management is the best way, but if it doesn’t work, you can seek counseling help. Many credit counseling organizations are nonprofit and work with you to solve your financial problems. But be aware that, just because an organization says it’s “nonprofit,” there’s no guarantee that its services are free, affordable, or even legitimate. In fact, some credit counseling organizations charge high fees, which may be hidden, or urge consumers to make “voluntary” contributions that can cause more debt.

Most credit counselors offer services through local offices, the Internet, or on the telephone. If possible, find an organization that offers in-person counseling. Many universities, military bases, credit unions, housing authorities, and branches of the U.S. Cooperative Extension Service operate nonprofit credit counseling programs. Your financial institution, local consumer protection agency, and friends and family also may be good sources of information and referrals.

But be careful with some credit counseling scams on the internet.