The 10 year anniversary of our bankruptcy is coming up... around Feb. of 2008. Since declaring we've established excellent credit... paying all of our bills on time, we've paid off a student loan, a credit card, and our van loan (5 years early)... and we will probably have another student loan paid off by the end of this year.
I'm waiting for the day we can walk into a car dealership and get the 0.0% financing that is (in super small letters) only available to qualified buyers.
Of course that day will be far off since we'll be driving our vehicles until they no longer run...

We've also downsized going from a 2800 sq foot house and a $1200 monthly mortgage payment to a 750 sq foot house and a $480 monthly mortgage payment.
And we've done a lot of what debt/frugal experts suggest: florescent light bulbs, using more blankets/sweaters in the winter instead of turning up the heat, baking 2 or 3 items in the oven at a time, using the library to borrow books and movies, etc....

But what happens when you get to the point you are doing everything you can, and you're still falling behind on bills?

We were doing all we could.... we even use our dehumidifier water for our laundry water.... but we we're living paycheck to paycheck... sometimes putting $50 to $100 in savings, but a month or two later having to pull it out because our dental bill was bigger then estimated.

I search frugal/debt sites and never see an answer to this problem... in fact I never see this problem suggested.
Unfortunately I can't offer you an easy solution either.... reusing your ziploc bags just won't cure this....

The only thing I can suggest is to do what we have, and just keep plugging along.

*Find a support system (family, friends, a frugal group) for the times you're feeling low, and want to go to a store and buy the first thing that strikes your fancy.

*Keep doing what the frugalites suggest (hang your clothes out to dry or put a clothes line up in your basement for the winter months), not only will you be saving money, but often what you're doing helps the environment.

*Put as much as you can into savings/IRAs, even if you do have to take some out because you really need new tires.

And all tips used in this post, are things we do...

I'm hosting my first swap, a handmade Halloween card swap, at Swap-Bot... so hurry on over and sign up.... you know you want to.