oops, I forgot to mention... Last year I sat down when I finally had a permanent job, and I did my best to cut back on all expenses. I cut the cable service down, switched cell phone plans, switched land phone, things like that. My husband and I share one car, a 1997 Jeep Cherokee with 87,000 miles. I was taking the bus to work. I also kept track of all expenses.

We were paying about $1000 a month toward the debt before I lost my job. I had planned on 2000/month but somehow it only came up to be 1000, we were also saving for another car.