Get Out of Debt Basics

get out of debt

get out of debt

Every day, people look for options for how to get out of debt. I started this get out of debt series with my personal story a few weeks ago, and today we will discuss options anyone can do when looking to get out of debt. It isn’t complicated, but they will definitely help you get out of debt faster.

Live on Less, Compromise.

Until my husband and I were forced into a situation that required us to live on less, I didn’t think we could cut anything out. Truthfully though, I hadn’t really looked at our budget to find areas we could cut. It just seemed like too much work, but we had to get out of debt and it was the logical first step to finding money to throw at it.

I was pleasantly surprised to find our budget had more wiggle room than I thought. Within a few short hours we had found almost $300 in our budget we could cut out to put towards debt. We weren’t cutting our budget too thin and hadn’t sucked every ounce of fun out of it either. With a little dedication to figuring out a budget that worked, we suddenly had more money than either of us thought. More money that would help us get out of debt.

Sitting down and having a good review of our budget forced us to look at our spending and see how much money we were spending versus how much money we needed to live.  We decided that getting out of debt was more important than, say, eating out, and we would needed to compromise to make it work. We couldn’t have it all. The $300 came from different areas. Both my husband and I made compromises to make this $300 happen, but we worked together on our budget, just as we do on getting out of debt.

Make More Money

It’s easier said than done, I know, but the easiest way to get out of debt faster is to live on less and make more money.

This time last year I was lost. I had no idea what I could do to increase our income. Both my husband and I work full-time jobs (careers) with little opportunity to make more money. We now had a baby to think of, so I wasn’t interested in working so much away from home I never saw her. I started looking for jobs that would allow me to make money in my off time from work and baby, but also not be away from home more than required.

I thought long and hard about skills I had that would allow me to make money. Something I could do without compromising my family time, which was already too little. I’m crafty but preparing crafts to sell online and for craft fairs require upfront costs and a lot of prep time. It wasn’t flexible either, I couldn’t drag my craft supplies everywhere I went. I looked into tutoring as well but didn’t get much interest for the areas I’m competent in.

For me, blogging is something I’ve always done and didn’t seem like a ‘’skill’’. It was another blogging friend who suggested I get into blogging more seriously and pick up freelancing work. Blogging was something I did everyday anyway so it just made sense to me. I help other bloggers out with their workload while making a little extra money that we could use to get out of debt faster.

People looking to get out of debt, too often start their search with things like consolidation loans and credit counseling agencies. They skip right over the simple basics of living on less, compromises and putting real effort into making more money. Our world caters to an easy lifestyle but getting out of debt is hard and requires a lot of hard work. If you really want to get out of debt, you’ll do anything to make it happen, trust me, I know.

[Featured image by http://dribbble.com/wallacedesign]