Paying Off Your Debt: Woman Gets Part-Time Job for Full-Time Debt

This is the fourth installment in our Paying Off Your Debt series that looks at how real people beat their debt for good.

Gerri Helms, 61, was nursing wounds from a divorce, up to her ears in $32,000 of debt and considering bankruptcy. But instead of taking that fateful step, the Orlando, Fla. resident chose to do something that sounds easy enough in practice but really isn't: she found a part-time gig -- on top of her full-time job -- and dedicated her paychecks from that part-time work to kill off her debt.