This is my first time reading Gail’s blog. I’ve been watching her show for years, and occasionally catching up on Slice as well.

A couple of summers ago, my family and I went to a summer fair. There we saw a table advertising TDDUP, where people could sign up to be potential ‘clients’ of Gail’s. My then 7 yr old son said, “Mom, you and dad should apply.” I think he meant because I watch it so much … at least, I hoped he did (and didn’t really know our problems). But there’s no way I’d go on tv to do that. Not my style.

Last November, my hubby and I decided we needed to do something to ‘get it together’ before it was too late – so we went to see our bank manager. Luckily she is a wonderful lady and helped us by giving us a consolidation loan, which will take us 3 years to pay off (at current payments). I thought the hard part would be watching her cut up my credit cards (all but the bank she works for – that limit was decreased), but it wasn’t. It was kind of a relief. Now, we’ve got a consolidation loan and a van loan to pay off, but that’s better at 5% than the credit cards at 18%+. We even went into the final signing meeting with a year long budget, and included all the things that Gail says people forget. The bank officer was impressed. Gail would have been proud!

Christmas was almost all cash … almost. I bought a few things on the CC, but my DH bought more than I expected him to. But once he gets his new contract back pay, and I get my yearly bonus, that will be gone, too.

Our goal? To take our kids to DisneyWorld before they’re “too old” for it (ie. teenagers). Hopefully, with careful planning, we can pull it off 2 years from now.

Thanks for reading. (I’m sure whoever screens these will get a chuckle from my email address.)

My wife picked up your book at Costco last week and she has been readin it non-stop. We worked on the 6 months expenses spreadsheet and we are excited to get out of our consumer debt.

In today’s society with big mortgage payments kids in daycare etc it’s tough and you need to plan.

Thanks Gail..

Also this site has some great stuff..

Well done Gail, I’ll be buying the book in a few weeks once I’ve managed to save up the $$$ – the new tv can wait

Happy New Year everyone and all the best to everyone’s financial goals!

Glad to hear things aren’t nearly as dire as you thought. Your cats are probably quite pleased they don’t have to share their dinner. (As a sidebar, though, I wouldn’t eat cat food – but have you ever seen that commercial for Benefal stew for dogs? It actually looks pretty good – lol!)

@Catherine and Dawn – I remember that episode too – the toilet issue was pretty funny

During the bus ride home tonight, I pondered having to share my cats’ canned food for the next year. I couldn’t figure out why the numbers were so bad. I make good money, I don’t go on trips to Europe, I cut my own hair, for goodness sake. If I’ve been living so far beyond my means for the last several years, wouldn’t I have a lot more debt?

I took another look at the budget worksheet when I got home to see if anything further could be done. Hmm… It appears I entered my bi-weekly income instead of monthly!!! Good grief. Truly, I think I’m dyslexic when it comes to numbers.

But that hour of fear really made me realize how destructive debt is. What if I just casually let it increase until I actually reached a crisis? I’ve been burying my head in the sand for years when it came to money. Looking at the cold hard numbers shows that if I stop frittering so much away on “stuff”, I can actually double my payments on my mortgage, car loan AND line of credit! Yay!

Thank you, Gail – your planning tools are fantastic!

The first thing I am setting out to do this year is get rid of unsecured debt then I will work on second mortgage and heloc. What a mess, how does it happen so soon.

If I was married, I would call Gail but I am single mom and haven’t seen her help Singles out on her show yet.

I would be way to embarrassed to go on her show anyway! Oh the drama!

Okay, good luck to us all!

I just made my first budget with your worksheet. Sob. I’m in shock.

I was going to go buy your new book tonight to help get my finances on track but apparently I have no money for these kinds of things I hope the library has it soon!

I need to start selling stuff in my house on Craigslist. And postpone renovations. And maybe auction a kidney…

But on the positive side, cutting my grocery/restaurant funds will tie in nicely with my weight-loss resolution! Yay 2010!

Wishing everyone a prosperous 2010!!

Thank you!

good luck to everyone in achieving their dreams in 2010

Also, everyone, good luck on your varied journeys this year, may 2010 be more prosperous for you than 2009!