Here are the top 10 ways to get out of debt:
- Cancel your cell phone. You don’t need it. Your quality of life will improve, and you will be “present.” (Read How Technology Rules Us.)
- Cancel cable. If you spend less time watching TV, you will find things to do that will relax you and create joy and family bonding.
- Don’t eat out. Have easy meals that you can make for little to no effort. A speaker once asked the moms in the audience if they had ever served Cheerios for dinner, and a huge number of hands went up. I didn’t know I was allowed to serve Cheerios for dinner! But it’s better than going deeper into slavery (debt).
- Sell everything in your house that you aren’t using. If you were to pile all your stuff on your front lawn, the pile would be higher than your house. You have that much junk. Get rid of it and make some cash for paying off that debt.
- Buy used clothing. Brand new clothes are way more expensive, both for you and for your children. (Read Saving Money on Children’s Clothes.)
- Cut the hair of your family. I am a pathetic hair dresser, I don’t know how to cut hair, and I hate doing it. But I’ve saved over $1,000 by cutting the hair of my family. Buy the hair cutting scissors only, and buy them separately. You don’t need all the other junk in the kit.
- Buy groceries with cash. If you use cash, you will count the amount that you are spending as you put the items in the cart; you will spend way less and eat healthier. It’s been proven that you spend more when you pay with a credit card. (Read Saving Money on Groceries.)
- Cancel all of your credit cards except for one. Pay that one off every month. If you don’t have actual money for something, don’t buy it.
- Stop buying your coffee at Starbucks. Make your coffee at home.
- Pray that God will help you get out of debt. God is in control of the entire universe, and money sometimes comes from sources you would have never imagined. The truth is that in all of the points above, if you ask God to help you, He will. God has provided specific clothing needs, for example, and hunters have given us frozen meat to fill our freezer for free. God’s economy is outside the box and unconventional. Seek Him first, and all the rest will follow.
Here is a funny video about cutting up your credit cards:
Don’t forget to leave your comment: What are some ways that you have gotten out of debt or stayed out of debt?
I put all bills and change into a jar and when we don’t have money in the bank for something, I go to my jar. This jar has helped us a lot when we are short one month on a bill.
My husband loved to do that, too, Christina. He found an enormous jar somewhere, and we never could seem to fill it. It took us years of change just to fill 1/4 of the jar, and we always needed the money before it got any higher. LOL
We dont have a landline so we couldn’t cut our cell phones out, but we did switch to Straight Talk which is 45/month for unlimited everything. They don’t have cool phones but they do have a few “smart phones” and although they are really old they work just find for us. Over the past few years I was able to get down to only one credit card and paying that down is my focus this year. I still get my hair cut at a local chain that costs me less than 20 for a wash cut and dry. I cut my fiance’s hair.
Getting down to one credit card makes a huge difference. I remember having to pay interest on 10 credit cards, and it felt like I was drowning. I thank God we are out of credit card debt, which is why I laughed so hard at the song about cutting up credit cards.
I make my own, well, everything. We have many food allergies here and we grow our own vegetables, which I can, husband hunts our meat, which he processes himself. We also raise our own meat-that isn’t necessarily cheaper, but we know what our food is eating!
Making your own food from scratch does save money, and it’s definitely healthier and tastes better, too!
I have been mastering couponing. We have cut our grocery spending in half. We have canceled cable for the last two years (and dont miss it at all)
We are using the savings towards paying off our credit card. We did pay off and cancel all but one card. Hope to have it paid off in less than a year.
We are using only a reloadable prepaid card for groceries this year. Once it is spent-no more. We also homeschool. Have been able to save on school supplies and back to school clothes. No need to keep up with the Jone’s
When we upgraded our internet (for no extra cost), we lost basic TV stations. We haven’t even missed it!
We do coupons and do not have cable television. I did some gardening last year and we belong to a food coop for some of our staples. We make extensive use of our public library for everything from movie rentals to magazine subscriptions and books. I am considering cancelling our internet and just using the free internet at the library. Now that my children have flown the nest, I am back at work. I plan meals and cook on the weekends to reduce reliance on eating out. Our cars are ten years old with almost 200K on them. I like them because they are cheap to license and insure and they are still very reliable. We are down to our last credit card and then some student loan debt. The mortgage is gone. I hope to be completely out of debt by May.
Movie rentals from the library are great! We do that, too! They have normal movies there, not just documentaries. I don’t know if most people realize that.
I have mastered cloth diapers. If you do them right, they aren’t difficult, yucky, or time consuming.
Cloth diapers was one thing I never tried.
I’m starting to budget for this year. I think being aware will help get rid of my c.card. The only thing I have left to pay is 1 c.card and a loan with a very low interest rate (planning to consolidate the 2 this month). Going to have a yard sale in June when the town has a town-wide yard sale. Can’t wait!
I’m excited about your giveaway since I was thinking about getting this book.
I used to have an annual yard sale, where I would earn around $100 for junk I wasn’t using. And yes, making a budget will help in knowing where your money is going.
I wish We could leave a comment about how we got out of debt…We can’t seem to stay out of debt. We get close…then we’re swallowed up again. We dont have cable…we do have netflix. we dont have landline phones…dont know if i could give up my cell phone…we dont drink coffe…but we can do better about eating out! cerdit cards are a curse…and we’re cursed bad!!
we’d love Dave Ramsey’s book! Please help!!
I was cursed by credit cards, too, for so many years. I feel your pain!
I look for as many DIY projects as possible!! from food, to cleaning supplies! 🙂 I cut Cable TV as well!
I like do-it-yourself projects that I can do myself without my husband. That way I don’t have to wait around for him to have the energy to do it.
We have gone back to basics. I have a 2yr old and there is nothing better than getting down to it. Cooking real food, making homemade items such as Laundry detergent, surface spray, body scrubs, shower cleaners etc It’s all about learning and saving those pennies. 🙂 We visit our budget sheet every 2 weeks. It’s not always right and certainly not easy but with time and patience and a sense of what we are doing with our money, we feel we are on the right track. 🙂
That’s great! Most people have no idea what they spend money on, so it helps to write it down on a budget. Making your own cleaning supplies would definitely cut down on bills, although I’ve never done that.
I would love to win this. I just bought the a time for everything divided wallet & are going to do her 31 day challenge. this book would help so much to help me get on the right path that I decided for this year. I so want to be a good steward of all that god has given us & honour my husband for working so hard. Thanks for the opportunity. Melanie.
Honoring our husbands who work hard is something all of us should do! Thank you for sharing.
Congratulations!! You won Dave Ramsey’s book!
I would love to win this. We’ve been making changes with our family finances but still don’t have it under control. I’ve been getting some great deals with coupons and have had to stop eating out. It’s helping but it’s slow going. Thanks for the chance to win!
Not eating out makes a huge difference.
This year (this month!!) I am determined that we will create and use a budget! I’m so frustrated with never making progress with our finances. We just never seem to be able to stay out of debt. Working on getting my husband and I on the same page. Would love to win the book!!!
For so many years I never made progress with my finances either. I’m so glad to finally be out of debt. It’s worth the journey to get there!
Lots of great tips here. I refuse to cut my children’s hair, I’ve made many mistakes and made people grumpy!
Hahahaha! I can picture the bad haircuts…
Blunt: cut off your cell phone. You don’t need it. Liked this one! I had lost my phone for three weeks and I felt I had such an amount of time to do productive stuffs in life.
We would have so much more time if we weren’t so addicted to our phones.
I went back to the utter basics. Instead of ordering unwanted pizzas and buying sandwiches, I make my own homemade pizzas and prepare my own sandwiches for lunch etc. I find many recipes online to print out. I look for deals at the movies. I also collect student discount vouchers and coupons if I can find them. When going to a nice afternoon tea I search for cheaper ones first. Same applies to all tea rooms and the pubs. I select cheaper meals and splash out on a glass of fancy white wine only instead. When visiting local shops I look to see if I can find some useful cheap items there. I buy fresh fruit and vegetables all at a farmer open air weekly market in town. I purchase my cheese and meat from a local garden centre farm shop. Things like eggs I obtain from friends or a supermarket at quiet times. I make use of quiet times at bars and so on.
Part 2
I know that you can buy cheap packets of seeds quite easily. Buy them from garden centres. You can even easily find a lot of gardening stuff online. I now make up my own homemade paint at home and try on all clothes prior to buying them. There are a ton of effective ways to cut costs. I like to make my own cool cakes and pies at home for people. You can even find free brochures and mini leaflets. Instead of going to theme parks, attend a free weekly service at a local church nearby.