Paying Off Debt
Easy Ways to Pay off Your Debt
OK, You know it's time to stop fooling yourself and start paying off
debt! You are ready to tackle it, and put a plan in place.
But how to you go about doing that? Below and on the next few pages you will
find
some great tips for paying off your debt.
To jump to a section that interests you - Click here for a
summary of the ways to pay off your debt (right hand side of this page -
Otherwise scroll down to see all of the ideas.
The first thing you need when paying off debt is a plan. You then need
to commit to the plan, and follow it every day until your debt has
been paid off. If you are unsure how to create a debt repayment plan,
then check out our
Get out of
Debt Plan.
The amount you can pay each month when paying debt down, depends on
how much you have left over each month from your income, after
paying
your expenses. If your income is less then your expenses each month then you are
accumulating debt just to survive. This doesn't work, and you may need to
tighten your belt just a bit, or maybe a lot.
To determine what you spend each month, and how much you have left over
you must
organize your finances, and do up a
simple budget.
This will show you how much you have left each month to pay off your debt.
If you don't have any money left for paying off debt, then you must
look at your spending. You can't move forward if you can't pay off your
debt. You have to reduce your spending, or increase your income otherwise you
may be looking at bankruptcy (as an ABSOLUTE last resort)!
What can you do without while you are paying debt down? Here are some
ideas:
- Brown bag your lunch
- Cancel magazine memberships you don't read or
borrow them from the library
- Cancel gym memberships
- Buy generic brands or go to discount designer
stores?
- Rent or borrow the latest DVD's or books instead
of buying them
- Reduce your cable and entertainment spending - do
you really need all those extra channels?
- Buy gently used items instead of new (some real
bargains can be found if you do your research)
- Decrease the number of times you dine out
each month
- Clip coupons
- Look out for sales in your favourite stores
- Carpool
- Skip the fancy coffee's and go for regular or even
tea
Do you smoke?
Quitting smoking will save you a ton of money, not to
mention you will make your
doctor and most likely your family happy! If
you smoke a pack a day and spend $5.50 on each pack, you will
save over $2000
a year! Can you imagine how quickly you could pay off your debt and you
could
increase your length and quality of life!Look for
opportunities like these to reduce your spending and live more frugally - check
out our
fugal living
section
for more ideas.
When you are paying off debt, there is no point in accumulating new debt.
You will just end up in a never ending circle! So STOP creating new debt!
Do everything you can to avoid creating new Debt! Commit to this above
everything else.
Go to a cash system - Only pay for things with cash. Try
Envelope
budgeting.
Continue to
Paying
Off Debt Page 2,
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