Procrastination kills.

You must take steps to get control over your debt addiction. Even if you take just one step today, that's better than nothing. Tomorrow you will take another. As Alcoholics Anonymous says, "One Day at a Time."

You can take one step. So, take it.

First, find out your FICO score. This tells you what your credit rating is. You can pay to get this information from the three main credit-rating agencies, but the cheap way is to get an approximation. To find out more, click here. (If you are not an American, find out about other nations' credit scoring here.)

Ideally, your church has a household debt-reduction program supervised by one or more deacons. You sit down with a deacon who is assigned to work with you. He helps you create a budget. He may have Quicken or Microsoft Money on his computer. You bring in your data, and he enters it. You create a secure password on his computer. This means that only you can access the data. Every week or every month, you go in with new data. He enters it. You work with him to see if you are on track.

I realize that most churches offer no program like this. If they did, their members could and would donate more money.

These articles list lots of steps.