How I Got Out Of Debt

How I got out of debt!!!
Sometimes the best way of getting out of debt is by reading how someone else did it. Well here is my story and I hope I can help you out with what I did.
I take home about $800 a week which is $3200 a month. Now that’s not a bad living but if you have large debt, it sucks. My expenses for the month not including the regular gas bill, hydro, water, cable and phone were those damn credit cards. I have a pile of them. The minimum payments on all those cards equaled $2500 a month. Wow you say!!! Yes, I said the same thing. Keep in mind that the elimination of these debts is not over night. It takes patience and thoughtful spending over the next three or so years.
In order to eliminate that debt you must first increase your take home pay or eliminate some of your expenses and pay a little extra on one of your credit card balances.
Here is what I did. I decided that I need an extra $200 a month to pay down one of my credit cards. Well how do you get an extra $200 a month to pay one of those off? I first tried to renegotiate my closed mortgage. Can’t do that because I am under a contract for so many years to make that payment. I then shopped around for better rates on car insurance and bingo, a better rate. Instead of paying $400 a month for car insurance, I am now paying $200 a month. Now this can be done with any expense you have. Maybe getting rid of your car payment by going with a cheaper more reliable car. Whatever your making payments on, get creative to lower that payment so you have that extra to pay down that credit card.
The credit card I choose to pay down was the one with the highest interest rate. But before I did that, I phoned all of my credit card companies and asked them, because I was having problems paying them, for a reduced interest rate. You would be surprised at how many did reduce the rate.
Once that was done, one of my minimum payments on my highest interest rated cards was $175 per month. Because I was saving two hundred dollars a month on my car insurance, I was able to pay $375 per month on this credit card. Once that card was paid off, another one of my cards had a $125 minimum. I was therefore able to pay that $125 minimum plus the $375 I was already paying to that other card and thus my payment to this card was $500 per month until that was paid off. I continued do use this formula for my last two cards. It took just under three years to become debt free. I am now working on my mortgage payment under the same philosophy.
It is actually that easy. Control you’re spending, cut up your cards, find extra money by re-negotiating with your credit card companies or cut one of your expenses to find that extra minimum payment. Pay one card off completely and use that money for the other cards. It does go by fast and the feeling is tremendous.
I hope I helped and good luck is with you.
Roger