Drawing the line means that when you prepare your budget, spending plan, cash flow plan (whatever name you choose to call it), you need to start with your gross income, give your tithe, pay your taxes, and then cover housing, food, clothing, transportation and utilities.

Then, start paying your other bills until the money runs out. That’s where you draw the line. Any bills below the line will just have to wait until next month or when you get money from selling stuff you have lying around the house or from a second job. You have to use a spending plan if you want to get ahead in your finances. If you just create the plan and then don’t follow it, you will never get out of debt. Getting out debt requires that you change the way you think and behave. You need to use cash, cut-up your credit cards, write down every expense as you incur it, avoid buying what you cannot afford. Live below your means, but cover your needs.

Remember that you want to be paying your bills using the snowball method. This means you find the credit card with the lowest balance, pay as much as you can on that one, while you pay the minimum payment on the other cards. When that card is paid-off, you take the money you were paying on that one and add it to the minimum payment you were making on the other card. Continue to do this for each card. Once you get momentum going, you want to keep going. Be intense in eliminating the debt, so that it won’t eliminate you and your family.