Consumers Deal With Holiday Debt Hangover
2 hours, 30 minutes ago

By EILEEN ALT POWELL, AP Business Writer

She estimates that some $9,000 of her debt was to cover gifts and other holiday spending over the years.

Shain now works two jobs, full time as a surgical technician and part time at a gourmet food store, with part of her income going to pay down her debt.

Shain admits she still sometimes overspends at holidays and that "I tend to get stressed" when the bills arrive in January. But now she handles the situation by asking for extra shifts "and I pay the balances off as fast as I can."

Howard Dvorkin, president of Consolidated Credit, said many people have so many credit cards they don't know how much they owe overall. He offers a step-by-step approach to help consumers work on the problem:

_ First, list all your bills on a single sheet of paper in three columns: who you owe, how much and the minimum monthly payment. _ Then look at your earnings and spending.

"With earnings, look at every aspect," Dvorkin said. "Can you adjust your (tax) withholding to get a little more in your paycheck each month? Do you need to find a part-time job to supplement your income?"

On the spending side, "make sure every penny is going to the right places," Dvorkin said. He noted that someone with a $3 a day latte habit can save several hundred dollars a year by simply changing to regular coffee or that consumers can cut food bills by shopping at discount stores rather than more expensive neighborhood groceries.

"Most people can probably bring down their expenses by 10 percent to 15 percent and not even notice," he said.

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