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[quote=Anonymous]Make a budget.  Figure out what your paychecks are.  Deduct the mandatory payments, e.g. mortgage, car payment, utilities.  Create a budget for food and basics (that may include new clothes for school or essentials like school supplies, child care supplies, etc).  Now look at what is left and decide how much you want to put towards each of the remaining debts (school loan, CC).  Use on-line calculators to determine what the pay-down period would be for different payments and figure out what time-line you want to get the monkey off your back.  Also, plan for an allowance that you give yourself every paycheck which is what you can use for family expenses.  Stick to the allowance.  If you don't use the allowance in one paycheck, you can save it for the next period, so you can save up for a splurge like a concert by being frugal on the allowance for a couple of months.  If you can't do this yourself, open a separate bank or credit union account for the allowance, and have an automated payment made to this account from your regular account each pay period.  That way you know what allowance money is available at any time.  The bigger the allowance, the less aggressive you'll be on paying down consumer debt.  The smaller the allowance, the faster you'll be out of consumer debt.

When paying off the consumer debt, there are different theories.  You can try to pay a little extra to everything at once, or you can make minimum payments on most and choose one debt to eliminate first.  Then you put all of your extra payments on that debt until it is gone.  Michelle Singletary, the financial columnist for the Washington Post recommends paying off the debt with the lowest balance first because then you'll see the biggest progress and get the most emotional bang for the buck as you watch the smaller debts actually be eliminated.  I still hold to the policy of paying off the debt with the highest interest first because that is costing you more money monthly as the interest compounds.  You will pay off your debt faster if you pay off the higher interest balance first.  Either way, it is frequently recommended to work on focusing on one debt at a time to eliminate multiple debts rather than trying to pay off each concurrently.

Good luck![/quote]

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