1. Stop buying things!...shop your home first, for example move things around for a new look. Make friends with a car mechanic & bake him/her cookies, or clean their house/yard. Learn to sew to mend clothing. Kids get a choice from Goodwill toy area, not the latest thing on TV, etc etc etc
2. Get a 1.5 or 2% cash-back card, pay the bill In Full each month for no interest charges. Pay your billsautomatically using it so you never insure late charges. But Only get this If you Pay The Bill In Full each month, otherwise you will be worse off,
3. Drive an old car, buy used washers & dryers. I have never owned a new washer or dryer, only one new stove, in my 70 years...clothes are clean, and I am considered a great cook!
4. Take pride in Not keeping up with the latest fashions, etc. Become Eco-friendly by shopping thrift stores and yard sales.
5. Order an appetizer if you Must eat out, drink water..... drink wine, etc. at home if you must drink.....drinks out are The most expensive thing you can do. Avoid take-out, it is Expensive and bad for your health/ weight!

I have been Extremely poor most of my life, having "enough" is a Wonderful feeling and worth every "sacrifice"

Two things. One pay off the smallest debt and work up to largest debt. The second is to pay off highest percentage debt first.

Two golden rules: Always pay your credit card in full every cycle. Plastic is just a convenience, not a cheap lender (actually that money is VERY expensive) and number two, never spend more than what you make. Sounds pretty simple to me

First, forget the pundits and the scam artists. Tackle your high interest debt first, with as big a monthly payment as you can afford. Transfer high interest credit card debt to cards with zero interest for one+ years, and NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, use that card until it is paid off! Because the transferred amount will sit there, and your monthly payments will be applied to any NEW charges! If possible, pay loans, such as car loans, bi-weekly, and pay the max you can afford. Paying every other week will pay off the debt MUCH quicker. Oh, and "God" said, "right on motherf#cker! So you now I'm right!

Keep a 30 day record of what you buy. The following month buy only what you absolutely need. Cooking at home is really a huge factor in saving money. I admire anyone who puts effort into meal planning. My daughter makes meals ahead of time and freezes them. Pay as you go phones. Hulu and Netflix verses cable. Find free events in your area for evenings out. This can literally save you a hundred dollars per month. However living that way is the tough part.

I've been living without credit cards for about 20 years now.
My debt-load is practically non-existent.
All I have left is student loan debt, which I'm trying to get rid of.
I know a lot of people say, "You HAVE to have credit cards", but I'm
here to tell you that you CAN live without them.
When you can only pay cash, you find out pretty quickly all the crap you
can live without.
Finding out what you 'want', as opposed to what you actually 'need', is a great leveler.

Attack the principle. Pay a little extra. Preferably every other week.

Take care of what you NEED first and foremost, with what is left over get what you WANT. Live and spend at or preferably below your income level.

See if you can consolidate, pay extra each month above and beyond the required payment to directly pay off principal, pay revolving credit in full every month, use the 12 months same as cash deals as much as you can, and without fail add a fixed amount to your savings each month, even if you have to give up some stuff to do it.

I'm not sure how christians expect to pay off debt when Jesus gets his 10% cut. As others have mentioned, Suze Ormon is probably a good option. You can download budgeting software such as YNAB to help.

Like others, I love credit karma. It's a nice way to keep track of everything. As far as debt goes, I use the snowball tactic. Pay off one debt and use the money to make large payments on another debt. However, I did it a bit differently. I paidnoff the debts I knew I could pay off in a few months to a year. Then I went after the highest interest debt. Now i'm practically debt free save for my car. But it's not just about paying off debt. You should look for ways to make money to pay off debts and give you a little breathing room.

This is what I did.
Make payments on all bills. Look at your bills and pick either the lowest balance or the highest interest if they are somewhat equal. Focus as much available extra money toward that bill until it is payed off. Then take that entire payment and roll it into the payment of the next lowest bill. It will be a bit slow at first but it will work with diligence.

I have quite a good book called, Ausperity by Lucy Tobin.

When I needed to pay off my credit card debt I moved accounts to, 'no interest for 6 months' options a few times (or became a credit card slut as one friend called it!). I cut up the card I didn't need and just put all my spare money into it to get rid of the debt. If you have that issue I'd strongly advise that approach.

Beware of consolidation loans, sometimes the interest rates are high and you end up paying more. Pay off the high interest components of your debts first.

A budget is your most effective tool to plan your finances and measure your progress. A great budget tool in my opinion is one called You Need A Budget. It's principle is to give every dollar a job. Every dollar that comes in is assigned to a category or bill that you need to cover each month.

A secondary method I use personally is to total up all the expenses and savings goals I have. This allows me to determine percentages each represents of that total amount. I apply those percentages to dollars coming in and allocate money to each budget item. For example, if my rent represents 30% of my total expenses, when I get paid 1200 on day, I assign 360 to my rent category.

Suze Orman. A lesbian who gives really good financial l advice, with zero religious bullshit.

When i decided to downsize and to stop working for a living, becoming a minimalist in the process, i had to get back to basics. Financial freedom takes not only financial management, it's also requires self-management.

When i decided to close my financially lucrative professional practice in 2006, I never expected to be broke and in debt.

But i've always believed that worry is a misuse of my abundant imagination, so once i recovered from the shock my broker handed me, i sat down calmly and mindfully and came up with a plan. It didn't happen overnight, and took time and patience, i but i needed a map to help me.

I had often used a S.W.O.T. analysis with corporate clients, so that was the first thing i did. S.W.O.T. means Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and is a planning tool one can apply to any strategy or problem.

The catalysts to changing my lifestyle included losing a large part of my savings in the market crash of the mid-1st decade of the 21st Century. But i didn't want to restart the practice, rent another office, hire staff, or to continue doing what i had been doing for over 30 years, even if i loved it during all that time. That period of my life was over and i needed to move on and to let go what I had been.

So i had to not only revise my financial strategies, i had to rethink what i really needed to live comfortably, and to self-actualize who i was so i would be comfortable in my new lifestyle.

Critical to my overall plan therefore was the need to reflect on Why Do We Do What We Do plus "How not to be ruled by feelings, habits, impulses and thoughts." Here's an article which offers some guidelines and strategies which can be helpful.

[psychologytoday.com]

The financial realities required a more detailed and specific approach which i integrated into my lifestyle strategies. So here's a Canadian government website which describes some of what i did financially over the fours years it took me to revise my financial reality.

[canada.ca]financial-consumer-agency/services/make-budget.html

Once i arrived in that place however, it WAS well worth the effort. It all worked out in the end, even though it did not go exactly as planned; it was not without some stress, or without the odd speed-bump, but here i am in 2018 again living the life of my dreams in every way.

My reality has always been my bottom line and my reality today is everything i need it to be.

I have never been one to go into debt. I have always lived within my means.......probably due to my growing up in an extremely poor family. However, I do recall hearing somewhere that when paying off debt, it is always best to make extra payments towards the principal which will reduce the amount of interest incurred, which makes sense to me.

I have done this. Look at your credit report sometimes a creditor hangs a tag and it brings your score down challenge it your score goes up and you can request lower interest rates. Also does not hurt to pick up the phone and outright just ask creditors for a lower rate.

Think of accounting, with debits and assets. See what you spend each month and what you take in. Look at the balance. Then, attack the higher interest on cards or anything else to eliminate the lost revenue from the interest. Find credit cards that pay you back but pay the total in full each month to avoid interest. There are many ways to approach.

I remember reading an expert opinion that suggested paying minimum payments on the lower interest debts and focusing on paying off the higher interest debt as soon as possible and the focusing on the next highest interest debt and doing the same. The debts will go away at a surprising rate if you are responsible spender now.

Suzy ormon? I forget the book now but I went to the local library and found a great book on that stuff.

I'd be interested as well. Similarly had Ramsey recommended.

If you want to build credit. Borrow money from a bank to invest in a term deposit held by the bank. Making monthly payments when paid off you have some savings but most importantly you have established a credit history.

I always thought David Ramsey wrote about eighth grade level and was a bit of a male chauvinist . His philosophy is that men should make the money so women can stay home and have babies. I could go on about how his principles are pretty obvious. We got a lot of real estate landlord advice from biggerpockets.com. It's free and they have a general money saving section too.

I've been on Credit Karma for a couple of years now. I love it. They give a lot of tips and tricks on paying down your debt. The one I started with was paying off the lowest balances first. Then, I opened another card (stay with me) that had a no interest promotion for balance transfers. I had two cards with balances. I transfered the balance of one card, to the new one. Then, the card that now has zero balance also had a zero interest promotion for balance transfers so, I transfered the balance from the other card onto that one. Now, I have three cards. One without a balance. Two that I am paying as much monthly that I can over the minimum payment while it is interest free. However, compared to the average credit card user, I am well below average debt for someone my age. And I am not charging anything else on them unless I actually have the money in the bank to pay it right away. I like being able to earn points so, that is why I like using them but, I have to remain disciplined and pay them off every month. I've been doing it for a while now. So far so good.