You won't be caught off guard and you won't feel guilty, because you'll be spending money that you've allocated for the occasion.

One thing I want to make clear: You never want to hide from your debts. It doesn't work.

In about one-third of credit card consolidations, within a short period of time, the cards come back out of the wallet, and in no time at all, they're charged back up. Then you're in an even worse position, because you have the credit card debt and the consolidation loan to worry about. You're in a hole that's twice as deep - and twice as steep.

You really don't need to hire a debt settlement company to negotiate with your creditors.

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

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.