Turn down offers for new cards or credit line increases on your current cards. Credit's tight, and chances are, you're not getting many offers anyway. But if you do, remember that the less credit you have available, the less trouble you can get into.

By definition, saving - for anything - requires us to not get things now so that we can get bigger ones later.

A little personality goes a long way.

Don't let the fact that you're spending time getting organized result in late fees on your credit card bills.

The debt settlement company will direct you to stop paying your creditor and instead send the money directly to them each month. The company's goal is to demonstrate to your creditor that you don't have the money to pay up - that's your leverage. After a few months, the company will typically go to the creditor and say, "I'm holding X dollars on behalf of your customer. He doesn't have the money to pay you, so you should take this amount as a settlement or you'll end up with nothing." If the creditor wants to get paid badly enough, it will take the money.

If you have even a smidgen of doubt that you'll be able to stay away from racking up additional debt, don't do it.

Unless you have multiple accounts that you need to negotiate and you think the project is just too big to tackle on your own, you're better off just calling your creditors directly.