She needs some ideas on how to increase her income or decrease her debt payments. D has added many such ideas!

Here are some more: She could get rid of her car (and thus car payments) if possible. If not, she could move closer to work or mass transportation and then get rid of her car.

She could move somewhere cheaper and/or take in one OR MORE roommates. I’ve heard of students who live four people to a two-bedroom apartment. If you spend most of your waking time out of the house working, your living conditions don’t matter so much.

Some people live out of their cars. She could sell everything that won’t fit in her car (or get someone to store her favorites) and get the cheapest gym membership she can find (for showers).

Or she could move in with a friend or relative for a while–repay them with cooking and/or other chores they don’t like or don’t have time for. Or babysitting!

She can try to get extra work at her current job or ask for a raise for extra duties she has taken on. She can look for a higher-paying job.

She may also qualify for government aid programs such as food stamps.

For extreme (but not crazy) frugality advice, I recommend that she get a copy of any of the Tightwad Gazette volumes out of her local library. It has lots of ideas that are easy and that add up but that you might not think of on your own right away. And the author still has fun and is so happy and enthusiastic that she’s very inspiring.

She should remember that a lot of these depressing suggestions can be temporary until she starts getting things paid off and getting raises at work, etc. And some of these depressing-sounding suggestions will turn out not to be depressing at all once she tries them. Having three roommates can be like having ready-made parties every night. You can meet interesting people and have fun at extra jobs. You can sing yourself little victory songs each time you clean out a sandwich bag for re-use. And you might find some fabulous recipes and lose weight if you do your own cooking. As the author of that book says, you can think of each of your actions not as things that you have to do because you are in trouble but as things that you have the power to do. She can have the power to not let that ex-boyfriend drive her to bankruptcy!

You have to be committed and motivated to work towards changing your behavior and your habits along with learning to make wise financial decisions. You can get yourself out of debt, but if you still hold those bad habits its only a matter of time before you fall right back into debt. It can be a vicious cycle.

The path out of debt is a long one, but if you keep at it you can come out a winner.

I think I would also suggest:

Look for hidden money sources -
Do you have anything you could sell?
Find a roommate.
Take on a part-time job-8 hours a week extra, could put an extra $40 in your pocket each week or $160 a month. Put all that cash to the highest interest. Added benefit – to busy to dream of shopping, to busy to shop.
The relative that loans money, if they are older, might like some help around the house. Think Mowing, Painting, Cleaning, Raking. This can be a form of interest and show them you are serious about paying them back and have not forgotten them. This will be worth more than anything in the long run. Respect is priceless!

I have respect for this Susan, just for the fact that she does not want to file for bankruptcy. Her character is what will pull her through.