Money Thoughts & Challenges, Pt 2

To get out debt ... you are going to have to make some REALLY tough and painful choices.  You are going to have to swallow your pride and make smart choices, not popular or culturally accepted/expected choices.  You CANNOT continue doing things the way you are doing them now and expect to get out of debt.

If you have credit card debt, stop using them.  Get rid of them.  Throw them away.  Cut them up if you have to.  You need to do everything you can to pay off your credit cards ASAP.  If you have other consumer debt from some other store where you bought something on credit - do everything possible to pay it off ASAP.

Most likely you are strapped for "extra" cash to pay these off - so where does this "extra" cash come from?  Here's where you have to make some REALLY tough choices.

1. Get rid of your cable TV and go to free rabbit ears reception.  Yes, I know that means you will only have a few stations and your 24 hour sports station won't be one of them.  But how much to you spend every month on cable TV?  That can go directly toward debt reduction.  Sandy & I have the basic cable TV.  It costs us about $15/month and we get more channels than we can watch even at that!
2. Cell phone ... either get rid of it or cancel out all those add-ons that cost money like unlimited texting, sending videos and pics.  Lower your minutes allowed and DON'T GO OVER.  I can hear it now..."But it would cost me a lot of money to cancel my cell phone."  Yes, it would cost you a termination fee but paying that fee is less than what you will be saving to apply to debt reduction over the course of the next several months.
3. Sell your car and buy a "beater".  Suck up your pride and drive a car that has "rust" as its primary color.  Now that you are driving a "well-experienced" car, you don't need high priced insurance.  Yes, I know that the repairs and maintenance will probably be more than a new car, but the cost of repairs and maintenance are less than what you pay in monthly lease/payment, full-coverage insurance, and interest, AND the value of your new "beater" car stays constant so when you do get out of debt, you sell it for pretty much what you paid for it.
4. Stop eating out.  A family of four eating out once a week at a fast food place is about $1,500/year.  You can choose to put that $1,500 into your belly via all that fine nutritional value or you can choose to put that $1,500 toward debt reduction.

There are more.  Sit down and do some brainstorming with your husband or wife or family.  What are the absolute essentials you HAVE to have?  Then stop paying for all the other stuff.  Apply it to debt reduction.