[BabyRider]

You're right about needing a budget myself, and I guess I am on one of sorts. It's the "Don't spend ANY money whatsoever" budget.
The plan she followed was pretty simple, I guess, every penny she made was earmarked for a specific area. Right down to lunch money for her son, and of course, savings. She took the biggest bill, and threw money at that until it was paid off, then the next biggest bill, and the next and so forth. She had an envelope system for the small stuff, (her entertainment, her son's lunches, etc...) and when the cash from that envelope was gone, there was no more cash for that area till she got paid again. I don't pretend to understand the whole thing, but she could tell you better. She's been in here before, and I'll see if she wants to jump in and explain her system.
She was on the radio last week for getting through the program. Dave Ramsey has a show where his "clients" call in after getting out of debt, and tell folks how they did it, how long it took, how much they paid off and so forth. It was really cool, she got to shout out over the radio; "I'M DEBT FREE!!!!" It was awesome.
I'll see if I can find a link for this guy if you're interested, AK. ((((((((AK)))))))))