I've always been horrible with money. It stems from my family never having any, growing up on food stamps until I was 12, and general anxiety about it. My mother never has never been in debt, but she's never had any money, either. My father has been in debt, but he always manages to lurch out of it, and then into it again. So I swing from being being in debt to just being broke. Fun!

Mind you, I have two houses, a relatively new car, three nice bikes, and a fabulous kitchen...so things could be worse. Now I just have to pay for those things.

Since January, however, I've come leaps and bounds with some education, a new philosophy, and some very useful software. For the first time, I have money in the bank and I'm not spending it. I have a plan to pay off my debt, and I'm working the plan. I have a budget and it's incredibly powerful, but I'm not "starving" so I know I won't "binge."

Of course I wish I had done things differently in the past, but all we can do is start where we are.