Dan, 28, completed the hospitality program at Michigan State University in 2005, seeking a career in hotel operations. He finished his degree over six years, because he took time off to intern for the Walt Disney Company in Orlando, and Levy Restaurants in Detroit. (Levy manages food service in major sporting venues, including Ford Field, where the Detroit Lions play.)

Although the internships added to the cost of his education, “I wouldn’t trade that for anything,” Dan says. “The experience is a complement to the degree.” In fact, it helped him land a job in Nashville right out of school in hotel technology, where he manages 70 people.

But by the time he graduated from college, Dan was $52,000 in debt–student loans, credit cards, an auto loan, medical bills and several personal loans through a credit union. “I wasn’t keeping track of bills. I would go out to dinner and spend money and then have bills coming in,” he says. “I didn’t have a total picture of my finances.” He was spending an average of $100 a month on bank overdraft charges.

Struggling to stay afloat, Dan went to a payday lender for an advance on his paycheck. “I had three or four loans outstanding, and that was just a nightmare,” he recalls. “By the time I got paid, half my paycheck was gone (to interest on the loans). I couldn’t go to sleep at night; I was laying in bed thinking, ‘How am I going to pay these bills? I don’t have enough money to put gas in my car to get to work.’ I needed to do something.”

In 2006, Dan went online and did a search for “budget help” and that’s when he found Mvelopes. Over the next three years, he slashed spending–dining out, utilities, insurance, even Netflix–and directed half his salary toward debt reduction. “Anything I could reduce I did–everything was under the microscope,” he recalls.

Over three years, Dan shed nearly $30,000 in debt, cutting up and paying off all of his credit cards. His only remaining debt is a federal student loan for $23,000, with an interest rate of 2.62 percent. “Now I have such a grasp on my finances, I always know how much I have left to spend on anything at any given time–to the penny,” he says. “I’m so much more disciplined than I have ever been with money. It’s such a relief.” His credit score rose from under 500 to around 700 today, he says.

Now that he’s back in the black, Dan is enjoying life again–golfing, going to the movies and the theater, and traveling to big sporting events. He saw his alma mater play in the Final Four basketball tournament in 2009 and went to the World Series. “If I spend money on those things, I just readjust my Mvelopes for that month,” he says, cutting back in another spending category and shifting the money over–rather than living beyond his means.

Dan is saving up an emergency fund, contributes to his company 401(k) plan and a Roth IRA, and is focused on buying a home. “I try to read different articles on budgeting to find something new that I’m not doing, but nine times out of ten I’m already doing what the advice is,” he says. “Mvelopes changes your mindset. Before, I would just spend and deal with it later. Now I think twice before I spend–I always ask, ‘Can I really afford this?’ I can’t explain the relief I feel–I’m not worried one lick about my money. It’s is a huge burden off my back.”