Well, as my blogging sessions come to an end (this is the last week), I would like to take the time to thank everyone for all of their responses.

This is really a hard thing to go through and I am glad that I had the chance to share it with other people. It's encouraging to hear that other people have taken control of their finances and gotten out of debt. I hope that I helped at least one person realize that you can overcome being in debt if you really put your mind to it.

I know I have a long road ahead, but I really do feel like I am going to be able to pull through this financial situation. Thank you for the support and feedback you've given me. ~ Mary

If you're in debt, I recommend finding a down-to-earth financial advisor like I did. I don't know what I would have done without her. I never thought I would see a light at the end of the tunnel until she helped me put together a budget.

Your financial advisor could be a friend who is good with money and has been through getting out of debt or who is just money-savvy or has some background in managing money. So don't think you can't get help just because you can't afford to pay a licensed professional.

If all else fails, you can go to a Consumer Credit Counseling agency like I did. It's free unless you sign up for a Debt Management Plan, which has a relatively small monthly fee.

My bills were so overwhelming that I couldn't seem to get focused and I was never sure what bills were going to be coming in. Maybe in some ways it was easier not to see it in black and white and to stay in denial, but I'm glad I'm facing it squarely now and am determined to work at it. To see if you might be in denial about the seriousness of your financial situation, see Eight Warning Signs That You Might Be Headed for Bankruptcy. It's an eye-opener. The Top Ten Warning Signs of Too Much Debt is also very interesting. ~ Mary

Right now I am just going through my bills again to make sure I have everything in line. Last week I had to replace the brake pads and rotors on my truck, which was an unexpected expense.

My budget has a small allowance each pay period to put away for these types of expenses that are sure to come along but not on a regular basis, but I haven't been budgeting long enough to build up this little reserve. I hope at some point I'll be able to pay expenses like this without having to take the money away from another payment I should be making.~ Mary

I know I've said this before, but I still have a hard time being paid every two weeks. I'm hoping as I get a few months of having a written budget under my belt and seeing how it differs from what I actually spend, I'll get better at looking at things in a two-week window instead of weekly.

I have decided not to file bankruptcy and just let my two major credit cards sit for awhile and work on paying down the balances on the other ones. When I've got them paid off, I'll go back and try to deal with the ones that are in collection. There is no way to take care of them at the same time.

Hopefully the credit card companies for the two that are in collection will not take any legal action before I get the opportunity to start paying on them again.

I refuse to file bankruptcy if I dont have to. I watched an Oprah show a few weeks ago about people who were $100,00.00 in debt, which made mine not look so bad. It will all work out in time. ~Mary

Last pay period my spending didn't match the budget that I had so carefully planned out, so I need to sit down and figure out what happened.

I know I spent a lot more money on gas that pay period and I also had a few unexpected things come up. It's easy to get off track, but you just need to get back up and start over again.

Also, the longer I budget out my paychecks and track where I actually spend my money, the more accurate my budget will be and the fewer surprises there will be. It takes time to develop a solid budget, and constant tweaking is what makes a budget work.

One of the things that made my budget off this pay period is that my vehicle insurance bill came sooner than I expected. When preparing my budget, I went by when I paid the last bill, but because I am always late, and they bill one month in advance, I miscalculated when it would be due again. The bad news is, it made me go over my budget this pay period; the good news is, I paid the insurance on time, which is a good feeling and one I don't get very often these days. ~Mary

Janice, thank you for your offer to help. It's very kind of you. As for putting any details of my debts on the site, I really don't feel very comfortable with posting any actual account information becasue it would be available to all blog visitors. Not that I think you are not a trustworthy person. But it's not safe to give out pesonal account information over the Internet.

I would like to answer any questions that anyone may have for me in this next week's blog posts if anyone would like to ask me any questions in particular about my situation. ~ Mary

First of all I would like to respond to Janice...I do not get any child support for my daughter because she lives with her dad at this time. I have no other choice because I am living with a family member and I wanted her to have some stability in her life. So actually I should be paying him child support. But luckily he has not brought that up yet.

I really don't have the money to give him but legally I am supposed to be paying him. He will probably end up taking it to court eventually and trying to get her primary residency changed to be with him. I am hoping to get things straightened out so I can get her back with me. ~ Mary

Nowadays, one mistake with a late payment on a single bill can make ALL your creditors raise your interest rates. I have one credit card that I haven't used for a long time but the balance has increased from $8,000 to almost $13,000 because they jacked my interest rates up to 30% when I started missing payments. How can someone in my situation possibly keep up with that?

The interest charges caused me to go over my credit limit so the credit card company hit me with over the limit fees every month. It got to the point that I just couldn't even make a dent in it all, so I stopped paying on that account so I have some chance of staying current on my other accounts. On top of all that, they add big late payment fees every month. That account is in collection now.

If you carry credit card balances from month to month, please read The High Cost of Using Credit. It's an eye opener. ~ Mary

I'm still thinking about how I got hooked on credit cards. I kept buying things on credit and thinking I was doing fine. We always think we have enough when sometimes we reallly don't!! Or we feel that we can afford the payments and we carry balances on our credit cards from month to month, and don't seem to notice when the balances creep higher and higher.

I am living proof that unexpected things happen to people all the time, like medical costs, divorce, death of a spouse, loss of a job, or a cut in income, that can suddenly make it impossible for them to make these payments that seemed so doable up until then.

I want to thank all of you who have been so supportive. I haven't been able to respond to all the comments, but I really appreciate them.

~ Mary

I never would have imagined when I started using credit cards that I would be in the situation I find myself in. I am 39 years old and feel like I have nothing because of what using credit cards (unwisely) did to me.

I really do hope that people who read about my story take it very seriously and think about their financial situation before they start spending and charging things to credit cards or other credit accounts.

What has happened to me can happen to anybody, especially if they're in denial that they have too much debt. I wish somebody had pointed out the warning signs to me. To find out if you may be headed for a situation like mine, see Warning Signs of Too Much Debt.