<prompt> Human: So, Heres my debt story.I had a great job, making good money, basically living the dream right out of college, racking up charges on my credit card, electronics store,jewellery, furniture, and then.. IT happened. i got demoted, salary cut in HALF. Yikes, it sucks, i have this debt that was easy to manage, now im sinking- FAST. people are gunna sayits your fault, stupid well... YA IT IS. but now i gotta fix it, heres my current CONSUMER debt :18,657 holy shit that hurt to typeThis doesnt include my house mortage, because thats long term- not 21 interest that hurt to type, alsoHERES MY PLAN:i currently make 3,200after taxes per month.My current billsincluding minimum payments on all debt is roughly 2300.That leaves me 900seems like a lot left over, but thats with puttin 0 into the Im ed fund... well i may already be thereSO im giving myself, 20 a week in fuel, cutting it down from the 100 i spend nowsometimes, i just drive around thinking, NOT anymoreim also limiting myself to 50 per week for food, no more eating out, thats for non-debtors. that 13 of what i spend now.so that gives me a extra 720 a month. added to the 900, now.. we are getting somewhere.with a extra 1620 roughly a month.Im throwing my credit cardsdebit cards in my safe and limiting myself to CASH, Cold hard, Countable CASH!im going to tackle the lowest amount credit card! current min payment is 80. i should pay this off in just under 2 months.then im going to move onto the next, then the next and so on! till i get to the big guythe dreaded, 10,000 credit card. i dont know how it got that bad... well, actually i do. if i dont see the money coming out of my account, its like i didnt spend it... NEWS FLASH, it has came time to pay the piper. by the time i get to dreaded 10,000 credit card. i will have almost 2,000 a month to put towards it. so in about 12 months with interest and paying off the little guys first it should be nearly paid off.it seems easy, sounds easy, but its not. its a lifestyle change, its a HUGE change. its a strict budget, that i MUST follow through with, or ill be living in debt forever. I will have to sell all my needless items, but they are exactly that, NEEDLESS. anything to get these monkeys, or credit institutions as some call them, off my back.I have learned a very valuable lesson, One that the schools, parents, or anyone has never taught me.Finance, budget, most of all, the value of a dollar.its easy to swipe a card and not think of it. but sooner or later, you will have to face that growing debt.its going to be a long, tough year. but its going to be amazing when i get my LAST credit card bill.Im sure, people are going to flame and say i deserve it. Well you are right. i do, i got myself into it, thats why im fighting to get myself out.Thanks for reading, i might start a blog over at blogger to update my progress, just because, well this is a huge thing for me!  <response>: Call your cc companies and ask about lower interest rate options. I had a 19 no fee card that they switched to 11 35year fee. 1 month of interest paid for the fee. I just switched back to a zero fee when I was paid off. 