I am broke therefore............

Where do I start?

Long story short, I have about $20k in debt that I have to tackle.
How did I get in debt?

Well, to be honest, part of it was caused by my shopping addict and part of it was caused by our family situation where my Hub lost his job in recession 2010 and we had to move 4 times across country because of the job.

I have not yet contacting any debt counseling institution, mainly because I am inspired by Anna and her vanishing debt story.

Just to be fair, I think I need to let you all know about source of income we're getting and our situation, so that you can decide whether my way will work for your situation.

1. We are family of 3 - a child in early grades in elementary school

2. My Hub works full time job, pays pretty good - his income is for rents, his bills, and our bills

3. I work 2 jobs, both part time, in financial institution and in a retail. One pay slightly more than the other. I get paid every 2 weeks on both jobs - which ends up getting paid once a week.

4. We have 2 cars, we cable.

5. Our bills (excluding credit card bills) are : utility in our current place, rent, utility in our house which is rented by someone else, cable, car insurances, car leases, daycare

6. My bills are : credit card bills : 3 of them (of total $20k), car lease $105/mth, car insurance $55/mth, gas $50/month - yes you read it right, I have a smart car, the gas tank is only 8.5 gallon, student loan $1750, prepaid phone $15 per month.

So I have to admit, I consider myself lucky because I have a partner which means there are 2 source of income coming in in our household.

So my income pretty much for myself.

This is what I have been doing so far

1. Admit your weakness : is it going out? movies? trips? clothes? shoes? eating out?
Mine is well, yes..shopping for clothes. I can curb my addict on shoes, handbags etc, but most of the time fail on clothes.

2. What is your source of weakness? and how to eliminate your weakness?
I have severals:

When I didn't work, I tend to get bored and when my Husband came home, I demanded to go 'window shopping' which ended up real shopping. So I knew I have to work!

I used to work in a department where I could got AWESOME deal! and it's hard not to buy.
When I started hunting for a 2nd job, I chose a store where I could hardly buy a single thing in the store!

I also have a tendency of getting 'excited' in new place, we lived in a small town before and when we 1st moved to a much bigger town, I got shopping euphoria!

So again, when I looked for a job, I make sure my workplace location is safe from the shopping places.
My current workplace now is actually next to a mall -which is bad, BUT can be good at the same time, as I can go there everyday, and this makes me bored of looking at the same stuffs again and again.

.........................................to be continued