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Due to sudden financial difficulties, I found myself in serious debt. I owed money to about 10 credit card companies and I couldn't afford the payments. I had a very low income and a family to support. I was in a complete and utter mess, missing payments, incurring more and more charges and fees for late payment or non-payment. I sat down with my partner, devised a plan and began to dig my way out of the muddle. Here's how.

First of all, I collected together all the information about what money I had and what money I owed. I put it all into an accounting program on my computer. It doesn't matter what method you use, but you need to track every penny. I tracked each debt, my bank accounts, even my cash. Any bills that came regularly, I tracked on my computer. I set it up so that when I looked at my current/checking account, I could see the money that was in there, as well as all the transactions that were due to go out of the account in the next 30 days.

Our income at the time came from my partner's job, and luckily for us, he was paid daily in cash. We spent money only on necessary things, groceries and bills. We bought our groceries each day in cash, spending as little as possible. Any money left over from his wages went into the bank. If we couldn't make it to the bank, we put it in a pot in the house until we could get to the bank. We didn't spend it. If you're not lucky enough to be paid in cash or daily, make sure that you budget for groceries and necessary spending so that you can see how much money you have left to pay your bills. It is important to have more money coming in than you are spending on necessities, otherwise you won't have any money to pay towards your debts.

When a bill arrived, I set it up so that the minimum payment would leave my bank account on the latest day possible. This meant that as much money as possible was sitting in my bank account for as long as possible, so that there was something there in case of emergencies. I only paid the minimum each time, even if I could afford more at that particular moment.

The important thing to look out for is what your bank balance is going to be 30 days from now. For a long time, I didn't have enough money in the bank to make this number positive, but since I was adding a little bit more money to the bank each day, by the time a bill was due I more often than not had enough money to pay it. If I was going to be short, I called the company I owed and told them that I would be short this month. They

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