In all the kerfuffle over the big $700 billion bail out, you may not have noticed that the House of Representatives passed a bill that may be more important to you and your pocket book. We’re talking about HR 5244, a bill of rights for people who use credit cards.

The bill, which now moves to the Senate, would block a lot of those pesky, sneaky things that credit card companies do to jack up your interest rate, or charge you late fees, or slip credit cards into the hands of your college-age children.

And to prove there’s no such thing as too much of a good thing, the Federal Reserve has also introduced a reform bill to deal with consumer rights. It may take a federal scholar to winkle out the differences between these bills, but it is reassuring that the banking industry is against the Federal Reserve bill, calling it, “an unprecedented regulatory intrusion into marketplace pricing and product offerings.” And the credit card industry is against the House and Senate bills.

Basically, if banks and credit card companies are against such moves, regular people should assume they are for them.

Meanwhile, you should protect yourself. As you read your credit card bills, beware of the following terms, listed by Credit Card Reform:

• Universal default The term means is that a credit card company may monitor your credit report and increase your interest rate if they think your credit score is declining, or you are making a big ticket purchase, like a car. This can happen even if you pay their credit card on time.

Divorced women are already financially strapped and, with all the doomsday reporting lately, they may be financially scared too. However, it is not as bad as you think. In fact, in all recessions and depressions, there were many girls who managed to ride it out to their benefit.

And let’s face it, divorced women are resourceful. With that in mind, FWW asked Tyler Mathieson, CNBC’s managing editor for business news and all-around financial brainiac, to offer six reasons you can navigate this financial hiccup.

• Smart girls know that you should have money in the bank below the FDIC insurance limit of $100,000. or have money in several banks. The good news is that the limit will rise from $100,000 to $250,000 if the Senate bail out bill is passed. If you have just gotten a cash settlement on your divorce that exceeds $250,000, it would still be wise to split it between banks.

• If you have followed the basic tenet of smart investing, you have diversified among different asset classes – stocks, bonds, precious metals, T Bills, real estate. If so, you would have lost less in the stock market right now, since that is just one class of investments. And remember, it is never too late to get smart. You can diversify now too.

• If you have good credit, and depending on how much you are asking for, you should still be able to get a mortgage or a bank loan. Banks want to do business right now but will cater to clients with a good credit history. They may also add incentives for opening an account and making deposits.

• Your credit score is a composite of a lot of things – but the most important factor is whether you are late in paying bills. That will impact 35 percent of your score. So make sure you pay your bills on time.

How do you handle the “add-on” expenses of having children? You know, all those little things that are so important: Lessons, sports, back-to-school expenses, etc.

Back to school means new clothes, shoes, backpacks, supplies, fees, lunch money, hair cuts and specialty sports apparel. On the average, you can expect to spend about $750 per child in back-to-school expenses.

There is a lot of pressure on both kids and parents to have the latest technology and fashion. The amount spent to outfit a school-age child these days can be astronomical. You write checks for dancing lessons, soccer dues, hockey equipment, and field trips. You may also be dealing with a co-parent who likes to one-up you on these purchases, or a co-parent who spends too little on these things.

Ideally, you and your co-parent communicate well about expenses for your children and how they will be covered. If you are lucky enough to have an amicable relationship with your co-parent when it comes to money, you can pool together as a healthy bi-nuclear family to try to save money on back-to-school expenses.

Some of our Peace Talks mediation clients create a “kid bank account” with checks and an ATM card for each parent so that when these expenses come up, a check can just be written. A budget is established and each parent contributes his or her share at the beginning of the month, and keeps track of what s/he has spent. If the budget needs adjustment, you can do that periodically. If you’ve over-accumulated money in the account, you can splurge on a special camp in the summer or save for your child’s college education.

After divorce, your financial life will need tweaking. Even if investing has presented a roadblock in the past, it's now one you're ready to conquer.

Here are some tips:

• Every time you get a raise, increase your contributions into your retirement and other savings accounts. Bonuses, tax refunds, and inheritances are all an invitation to rejigger as well. Anyone who has done an outstanding job of accumulating wealth will tell you how important this strategy is. Give your own savings a raise every time you get one, and put at least part of every windfall to work for you.

Say it and sound smart: “I'm putting 75 percent of my bonus away for the future. I hope we'll have a lot more years like this one, but if this is the end of the gravy train, I don't want to spend the money and regret it.”

• Open your financial statements. Each quarter, you need to keep track of the direction your investments are going in and where you stand. Paying attention will help you spot any errors in your account immediately. And you'll notice if the asset allocation you've chosen is getting you to your goals in a timely fashion, or if you need to rebalance your investments to take on a little more, or a little less, risk.

Say it and sound smart: “I know it's time for CSI. Just give me a minute to look at how my investments are doing.”

• Ask questions when something seems wrong. If you don't understand something on your statement, call the toll-free number. This is no time to be shy. Tell the customer service rep what's on your mind. Little miscalculations and other errors will get worse over time.

Say it and sound smart: “It says on my statement that in July I bought shares... Can you go back into my record and tell me what you see?”

Wouldn’t it be great if our waistlines were as thin as a divorced mom’s back to school budget? We know. You have to stretch your dollars like worn-out Spandex and there are too many extra pounds of goods you still need.

However, we have some resourceful budget solutions that can help reduce your stress and help your kids look their best. They may actually learn something too.

Now before we give you this list, we hope that you have already looked in the kids’ closets and done a thorough inventory, just as you did on your assets prior to divorce. If something still fits, you don’t need a whole new wardrobe. One new outfit for their first day of school will deliver the most powerful emotional punch. Then you can wait for sales later in the month, either via internet or at stores. Remember, items are most expensive now.

1. With your child, make an itemized list of what s/he wants such as clothes, shoes, dress outfits, hobby or sports equipment, books, folders, writing utensils, backpacks and electronics such as computers.

2. Use this list as an opportunity to turn them into future Warren Buffets. Tell them what the dollar amount of their budget is and how they have to fit it to that number. Now if you kid says, “Mom, forget the spiral notebooks, I’d rather have Tory Burch flats,” tell them that school supplies have priority. However, if they find them at a cheaper place, then they will have more leftover for Tory.

The divorce is over, and you are on your own. You have a lot of big decisions to make, but the one about car insurance should be easy, with the following tips from consumer-finance expert Ethan Ewing.

In fact, it begins when you buy a car.

• Plan your purchase. You will save right out of the gate if you opt for a car without a lot of bells and whistles. Turbo features, for instance, often raise premiums because insurers think that, if you choose turbo, you are more likely to speed. And look up which cars have the highest theft rates – generally speaking, the imports like Honda Accord, Honda Civic, Toyota Camry, Nissan Sentra, the Toyota pickup, and some domestic makes like the Dodge Caravan, Ford F150 Series, Saturn SL and the Dodge Ram pickup. Out West and down South, full-size pickups are often the most vulnerable. If a car is likely to be stolen, it will often cost more to insure.

• If you live in a city, compare the cost and convenience of parking in a garage to what you will pay extra in theft insurance if you park on the street.

• Pay bills on time and pay overdue debts. Insurers take credit scores into account when determining rates. You can raise your score as much as 20 points in a month just by paying on time.

• Determine liability coverage: Basic liability covers damage to property or injury to other people as well as court costs. Each state has minimums. Liability coverage is expressed in three numbers, generally noted in thousands of dollars. The first is liability for one person hurt in an accident. The second is a maximum for all injuries in one accident: you, your children, their friends. The third covers property damage. So, 25/50/15 covers $25,000 for one person's injuries; $50,000 for all injuries; and $15,000 in property damage.

• Determine collision coverage, which insures a vehicle against damage from an accident.

According to news reports this week, Britney Spears is planning to contest some of her divorce attorney’s legal fees, arguing that they are too high.

Whether you’re Britney Spears or Brittany Smith, divorce can be a costly venture – and being overcharged by a divorce attorney can be a real issue.

According to FWW’s Diana Mercer, a California attorney who specializes in mediation and is the author of “Your Divorce Advisor,” when clients feel they’ve been overcharged, the first step is to ask for an itemized billing and compare it against your own notes of phone calls, court dates, letters, and work you know the lawyer did.

“Your best action is to do this all along during the case,” she says. “Most attorneys bill you each month (and if they don’t, ask them to) so review your bill carefully each month and bring it to the attorney’s attention if you think you’re not getting good value for your money.”

Attorney Gregg Herman, the family chair of the American Bar Association, says that the client should also reflect on the conversations they have had with the lawyer.

“Good professional lawyers always assess the cost/benefit ratio to a client in recommending a particular course of action,” he says. “Ask to meet with your lawyer to discuss your concerns. Perhaps the lawyer can explain the bill to your satisfaction — or make an adjustment so that you are both comfortable with it.”

If talking with the attorney doesn’t give you the result you’d hoped for, you can ask the local bar association about its fee dispute mediation program.

If you were dieting to lose weight, you'd know precisely how much you wanted to lose, and how fast you wanted to lose it. You need to be just as specific about your debts. Ask yourself these questions:

• How much do I owe?
• At what interest rates?
• By when would I like to pay it back?

You know that certain diets exclude some foods, at least for a while. The Debt Diet has nine rules to follow if you want the greatest shot at success:

1) Make debit your plastic of choice. When you're using a debit card, you can't spend money you don't have.

2) Slim down your wallet. Take all but one credit card (the one with the lowest interest rate) out of your wallet.

3) Stop shopping online except for groceries. Shopping online for groceries stops impulse purchasing and can save time and money. All other online shopping poses an expensive risk.

4) Stick to a shopping list. Whether you're buying a birthday present or burgers and buns, if an item is not on your list, you didn't think about it in advance. Don't buy it.

5) Make a visit to an ATM only once a week. Cash is even easier to blow through than plastic. Decide how much cash you want to spend each week. Take it out on a Monday and divvy it up into seven parts. Each day, carry one-seventh of the total with you. You're allowed to splurge with the extra you have saved.

6) Pay your bills as they come in, rather than all at once. If you do, you'll have more in savings, less in debt, and you'll be happier. Why? Because if you get a big bill – say for heating, or air conditioning – early in the month, you'll compensate and spend less on other things the rest of the month.

7) Bank online. If you are a believer – as I am – that time is money, then paying bills online saves you a lot of each.

One patient asked me: “Is it normal to anticipate failure in potential relationships, just because I am divorced?” Because of the possibility of divorce, she had asked for a pre-nup or a post-nup with her fianceé, and he was insulted.

She wanted to know, “Isn’t it OK for me to ask?”

I am seeing more and more women whose marriages have ended, and who finally realize that it was money issues that caused a lack of trust, jadedness, and bitterness.

If they are in a new relationship, they are especially eager to prevent this in the future. Some are even going as far as "date"-nups, contracts for who pays what, so there are clear boundaries. This isn’t as necessary for a night at the movies, but it becomes more so with expensive restaurants and trips out of town.

Many couples I counsel worry about how to deal with money issues. If they are living with someone, they will even tell me they don’t want to talk about money because it will spoil the romance, ruin their sex lives, and cause resentment.

If they are engaged (especially after one of them has been divorced), they may be concerned about money issues, but they are still reluctant to discuss finances.

They want to have peace at any price.

A Harris poll says that 47 percent of couples do not talk about money before getting married, and 51 percent do, but don’t do it properly.

If couples don’t talk about money, there is no way they can arrange a pre- or post-nup. But discussing money triggers a cascade of emotions and childhood issues. Those feelings can contaminate intimacy and destroy trust, and eat away at the foundation of the relationship.

Men and women struggle with the balance between money and commitment. Pre-nups and post-nups provide assurances their finances will not plummet if their relationship ends, especially in such an uncertain financial climate.