We use Dave Ramsey's envelope system and his debt snowball system for paying off debt. Google "Dave Ramsey" or "Financial Peace University." There is a class, which I have heard is excellent, but we haven't been able to do that. However, we did read one of his books (Total Money Makeover) that outlines the steps and have been able to follow the program that way.

The basics are that you budget everything, and take out cash for whatever you consider basics--groceries, clothing, whatever. Once you have spent the cash in that envelope, that's it for the pay period, unless you pull from another cash area. Don't charge anything. Start out by making minimum payments on your debts, and whatever doesn't go toward the envelopes or your minimum payments, put toward establishing a $1000 emergency fund. That way if something big happens, you use that instead of charging something or buying it on credit. (When our dryer died a couple of months ago, we were able to go to the store and pay cash for one instead of financing it.) Once your emergency fund is established, take that money you were putting there and put it toward your lowest balance debt, on top of the minimum payment. Once you get the lowest balance paid off, take whatever you were paying on that debt, and put it toward your next lowest, and so forth. Ramsey refers to this as the "debt snowball." Those are just the basics, though. There are more details to it. It's working great for us, though. We haven't used a credit card in I don't know when.