The total picture should be taken into consideration IMHO. How long are you welcome to stay... how much you are saving by not paying rent etc.
If you are welcome to stay for a long period and have a high amount of debt... I'd say go for a more organized plan of putting some cash into savings each month and making sure you chip in weekly in whatever way you decide on to help the household.
I'd definitely check into seeing what you I could to to maximize it all. You could call your ccc's and see what they could do to lower interest, check out BT offers you might have on your cards etc. You'd be surprised at how much you can save each month by taking the time to do things like that. Set aside a weekend morning to make those calls and also compare rates on things like your cell plan and auto insurance etc. We cut our cell bills down by 1/3 and auto insurance down to almost half by just taking the time look into it, which helped us a lot when we were doing the hard core uber frugal get outta debt thing.
So I think that with the right gameplan, you could be able to get the same results as putting every penny into cc debt while still saving and contributing.
EQ 787 EX 781 TU 737 11/17/07
*** I am not an attorney. If I was, I might not clip coupons. If you want legal advice, consult an attorney. If you want my personal opinion, feel free to consider my posts***