Getting out of your credit card debt can be pretty hard, but it can be a lot easier if you know a few tips and tricks to help you out. Lots of people allow their debt to get out of hand simply by mismanaging their money, but there are almost as many people who this happens to simply due to a series of unfortunate events. Mismanaging your money is a no-no and is typically easily corrected as long as you are willing to stay committed to managing your funds correctly, but if you have no real drive to get yourself out of debt and back on track, nothing anyone tells you to do is ever going to work. There isn't a book or a kit or a service that can get you out of debt to anyone unless you are committed to the task, so that is the first step.
Get committed to the idea. You must make yourself realize that you have to remedy this situation before anything anyone tries to do for you will help. Any excess spending must stop at once, no matter what it is. This means if you smoke or like to consume alcohol, these things must go away. These are very expensive habits. Going to the coffee shop every other day is an expensive habit, since most places will charge you between $3 and $4 for a latte. Even if you do not spend that much on a drink there, it still must be stopped. Unless you absolutely have to have something to eat or drink, stopping at the gas station to get a snack on the way home from work is unacceptable. Twenty ounce sodas should be eliminated from your options, because you can buy a 2 liter cola for almost the same price. Get the 2 liter instead, take it home, and fix a drink there.
Secondly, cut down on your utility usage. Make the entire household (if you are responsible for the water bill) take showers instead of baths. Turn the water off in the kitchen sink or in the bathroom if you are not using it and make sure everyone else does the same.
To save electricity, turn the lights off when you exit a room, even if you are coming back. All it takes is a flip of a switch and contrary to the belief of some people, turning it on and off does not use more electricity than turning it on and leaving it on. Appliances that you turn off also do not completely go off: they go into standby mode in most cases and still draw electricity. Plug electronics and other items up to a power strip and flip that off when you go to bed at night.
Keep track of where all your money is going every month by saving all your receipts. At the end of the month, figure out where you are spending more than necessary and cut it out. Hindsight is 20/20 and you may look at some of your receipts and say to yourself, "why did I buy that?".
