How to add a 2nd Sidebar to Blogger

You guys must have noticed that I'm doing some "interior decorating". It's still a work in progress but I definitely like a 3 column template better. Since working with the free version of blogger means that you have to tinker with html if you want any major layout differences this task seemed daunting in the beginning. I read through tons and tons of blogs that claimed to show me how to create an extra column in easy steps. They just made me feel very slow and dumb.

Finally, this blog showed me how to do this. In THREE steps. There was a little learning curve for me but as you can see it worked! I just wanted to share with my any other budding bloggers in case you've had the same struggle trying to figure it out.

If you're confused, send me a message and I'll try to troubleshoot. I had so many issues that I think I can solve most problems.

I NEED HELP: If anyone knows how to make the color on my sidebars extend to the end of the page (that white space is annoying) please let me know. I'd really appreciate it.

One word of caution, that website seemed to have make my computer a little slower. It seemed like it had a lot of things loading on the page.

Help Please

No self respecting debt blog would be complete without a debt meter/tracker of some sort. I can not for the life of me figure out how to add it. I have gone as far as realizing I need to play with the html and have tried to copy stuff from other websites that said it was okay BUT I have no idea where to start the copy and paste from, and where to insert it to. I've been getting all these error messages and now my eyes can't stay open any more.
Fellow bloggers, can any of you explain how I can do this in simple english (i majored in communications not computer science).
Thanks, it would be greatly appreciated.
Of course the next thing I will blog about is a debt o meter for dummies!