How do you pay off credit card debt if you don’t have any extra money to pay right now? If you don’t have any money left over to put towards paying off your credit card debt, then it will be a slow and steady process that will eventually free everyone from the heaps of credit card debt in the long run.
Here are 3 simple steps to help get you on the right track.
1,Set up time frame to pay off your credit card
To get a length of time to pay off your credit card debt is 1-2-3 years for small debts and up to 5 years or longer for major ones. It is never called a fast track to free yourself of credit card debt; whatever your situation, just a process, you will reach your goal one way or another.
2, Investigate spending money for few month.
Investigate where you’re spending money now. How much money do you spend on going out to dinner, going to the movies, buying snacks, lunches, petting, and putting a pack of gum in your pocket? To get a general idea of how much money you’re spending in one month, you should have kept track for 2-3 months on the end-of-year financial reports.
- Specific Expenses: Use a software program like MoneySAlay.com to track all of your specific expenses; for example, have a page with each and every entry for the 1, 2, 5, and 10-year budgets you worked out. For overpriced coffee, have a page with the total cost of the coffee to date (including dough and tax, that’s easy).
- Write down all of your monthly expenses and put each entry into the attached budget entitled: (expense in this budget commute) or write the exact dollar amounts down to the last cent.
- Begin writing down all of your discretionary expenses, those bills you have that you have little to no control over.
- Write down everything that you spend money on; spending money on will give you a good idea of where you can cut back if necessary. Look at your fixed expenses, is there a cable premium being charged on your bill? Do you turn the water off while brushing your teeth
- As your write down all of your expenses, one thing tends to become plain concrete, if there is only so much money coming in, there can not be a limitation on what you can or do. If you spend $ counseling a month on helping people, you could split that dollar by the number of clients that you help each month and have a certain amount set aside for counseling, that way when you do speak with a ‘counselor’ do it not for the payment, but for the help, to have them on your side.
- If you are paying a mortgage or rent, are you working while going to work? Do you have sufficient deductions? Can you brag to the auditor that you paid for all of your utilities, portals? Did insurance ask your accountant for compensation for police protection that off seems way out of line?
- Do you use credit cards responsibly? It’s okay; one is for emergencies and the other for major purchases. Look at some helpful feedback about your credit cards
Uneasy? Don’t be discouraged; really, you can do it. It will take a little time and patience, but within a year at worst, you will be happy you did it, and had the opportunity to pay down a bunch of debt and become debt-free in the process. If you are spending (entire paycheck goes to go shopping) while working, then you will want to go back to using cash or debit card instead of credit card, because if you do not, you will dig yourself into an even handier situation.
3, Decide to make the change.
Now that you have committed to reducing your spending and have redefined your spending habits so that the money you do have is better than the money you are spending, make the commitment to Be debt-free. By committing to that, you will be taking control of your finances, starting with something you have control over.
Look at your monthly recurring bills and decide if you can get rid of any of them, for example, the cell phone and cable television.
- Do you need all of them?
- Can you get by with one or two?
- If your Listen software is a subscription, do you need that?
- Can somebody else in your household listen to the local radio with you?
- If you are watching TV, should it be on your cable box, on DV, or on the internet?
- Now have a budget in place for your internet plan, cable, telephone, cell phone, and how much do you spend each month.
- Next, decide if you need the internet at all, do you use it from the library, family, and friends?
- How much time do you spend?
- Can you do your banking with online bill pay, or if so, how much is it going to cost you?
- Ultimately do you need to pay for it?
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