[Shoe]

I don't know how Suze Orman is considered an expert. All she does is state the completely obvious. If you buy her list on how to get out of debt it will basically say this:

1. Stop buying $8 coffees at Starbucks every day. If you order 3 of these per day, you will save $24 per day. That is $8,670 a year i just saved you! (even if you don't drink coffee I am still going to count this as money that I just saved your because I know everything, and women are better than men too).

2. Increase your deductibles. You probably don't even have a deductible on your car insurance because your such an idiot. Well make it $1,000. This will save you like $500 a year.

3. Stop using premium gas. Regular unleaded works just as well, and btw, did you know that it is cheaper? Bam! I just saved you another $250 per year.

Well, maybe her stuff helps some people... but the way she writes/talks annoys the hell out of me, and I already do almost everything she preaches so nothing she says even applies to me.

On a more serious note though, you should be able to find all of the information you need online for free. If you need a book, I don't know of any good ones but I'd imagine there are some good financial books out there that cost less than $20. You should be able to find some good articles at sites like fool.com, finance.yahoo.com, money.cnn.com, smartmoney.com or similar sites that can get you started in the right direction.

One thing you should do, is keep track of every single cent you spend. Write it down, and review all of your expenses over a month. Figure out what expenses you can live without, which ones you need, and which ones you can save money on (such as making your own instead of eating out/buying fast food). Like other posters in this thread have said, the key is to stop spending everything you make (or more), and start spending less than you make to start building a savings or paying off existing debt.