Tulsa - Sticking to a budget is a tough challenge for many families. If you spend more than you make you're in trouble. Unfortunately, many families don't follow that basic concept especially in this tough economy. All this month, NewsChannel 8 has been following the finances of a local family. We continue our promise to help them out of their financial mess.
,br> Like many Americans, John and Jenni make good money, but with six kids they also spend a lot of money. So they're having trouble with their bills, and in some cases, they're way behind in paying them.

They need a plan of attack to conquer their financial demons.

So this week John and Jenni, armed with information on everything they spend their money on , met with a credit counselor.

John : you don't know where all those expenses are coming from until you finally see it all written out >

And it's a lot... ($600) Car payments , ($1200) the two mortgages they each brought into the marriage they can't get rid of, ($300) rent on the home they're living in now, ($1200) grocery ($500) cell phone and ($750)eating out bills, even down to their($100) Dish tv and the ($360) cigarettes they buy. Everything they spend money on. (calculator bills 36,37) When credit counselor Tom Simpson adds it all up, it's overwhelming for John.

John : $ 6331.13

Mark : What do you think of that ?

John : I think I need three jobs that's what I think

For John and Jenni, what's going out is more than what's coming in.

“Look at this, you're 869 dollars in the hole trying to maintain all this stuff every month and its flat out impossible” said Tom Simpson with Consumer Credit Counselor.

Mark : do you feel like you're drowning in debt?

John : oh we're definitely drowning

And like many Americans in this troubling economy, they're threatened with home foreclosure, cars repossessed, utilities turned off and damaged credit.

The thing is you've got to stop the bleeding before you repair it. Right now we're not talking about a minor cut, we're talking about an arterial spur

Simpson's advice to stop the financial bleeding? Do whatever it takes to unload the two houses they don't live in, one of which is already in foreclosure. That would free up the nearly 1200 dollars a month in mortgage payments to spend on the necessities.

“The old saying I want to make sure I've got a roof over your head , food on the table, utilities on, and a way to get back and forth from work, has worked for me for 30 years . If you don't have that it ain't going to work” said Tom

You might remember, John and Jenni also face at least 150 thousand dollars of debt, much of it on credit cards. A huge concern, but as you just heard, not as important as meeting those four vital needs for their family: housing, food, utilities and transportation.

John is still drowning in debt, but he now has a plan of attack.

John : I can see my head above water a little bit now, once we can come up with some conclusions.

Mark : so it helps to have a plan? (tom) Oh yeah its going to help tremendously.>

That's great to see, but John and Jenni have some tough decisions to make, especially on those two houses. Getting rid of the 12 hundred dollar a month mortgages will sure help in relieving the stress of paying their other bills. Remember, they're spending nearly 900 dollars more a month than they're making. Unload those mortgages, plus put to practice the grocery shopping and spending advice they learned last week, and they're beginning to turn their financial mess around. It's going take time though.

Next week, in part four of escaping the debt trap John and Jenni get advice on investing for retirement. and we wanted to know if this series has got you changing your ways.