JD points out:

You cannot learn to control your spending until you understand what money means to you. Begin to notice your thought process and attitudes as you shop. What are you thinking? Why are you buying the things you’re buying?

Everyone spends money for some reason.  It could be because of a careful, well-thought-out process.  It could be because of habit.  It could be to fill a void.

If spending patterns are becoming financially destructive — meaning that they’re causing debt — then the pattern will be changed only when the underlying issues are addressed.  Unhealthy views on spending need to be changed.

Out-of-control spending is only a symptom of a problem.  Knowing what the problem is goes a long way toward curing it.

What hit Tricia like a brick (not yesterday, but a couple of years ago) was that she wasn’t thinking big enough. Up until that point she felt that she was sabotaging her efforts to become debt-free by telling herself that she didn’t want to be a millionaire.

If the thought of money leaves a bad taste in your mouth, it’s probably natural to not want to have to deal with it, let alone deal with a lot of it. Or it’s also natural to just want to get by rather than really succeed. But it’s not the money that’s the problem, it’s the way it’s used. Becoming debt-free involves all kinds of transformations: financial, habitual, relational, and even spiritual.

Don’t be afraid to think big!

According to Tricia’s chart over at the No Credit Needed Network, she’s more than three-quarters of the way toward killing her debt! Woohoo!

What a great question to ask!

It’s so easy to get immersed in the debt reduction swing of things that once the debt is gone and there’s all of this cash floating around where there once wasn’t, it’s a bit of a shock to have the burden lifted. Now, it’s a very good shock to have, but having a plan for the money that was consumed with credit card repayment is key to staying back on track.

The snowball method of debt reduction works wonders, but the snowball is biggest at the end, and needs to be actively controlled or it will just go up the hill, come back down, and roll over you. There’s a lot of free cash flow that needs to be controlled. Formulating a saving plan, setting up extra roadblocks to avoid missteping into credit card debt, and just not going nuts with the shopping to celebrate go a long way to accomplishing this.

Facing debt reduction isn’t easy, but if several debts are in the mix, which one do you attack first — the small one, or the high-interest one? JD found that even though paying off the highest-interest debt first would have resulted in the most saved interest, it didn’t work, because those debts just kept hanging on, and they defeated him time and again.

Then he tried knocking out the smallest one, and that worked. With one less payment to deal with, knocking out the others was easier, both financially and psychologically.

In order to make extra payments toward credit card balance it helps to find places to cut expenses. Here are six places that Debt Sense suggests:

1. Move to a less-expensive apartment. Or get a roommate if that’s possible.
2. Cut utility costs. Get rid of cable or just conserve energy.
3. Look for extras to cut. Nice-to-haves can be had later after the credit card balances are gone.
4. Be a grocery cheapskate. Shop smarter.
5. Skip the land line. If you can get by with just one type of phone, it costs less.
6. Drive smart. Watch the speed and the extra trips.

There are as many other ways to cut expenses as there are hairs on your head. (Unless you’re bald. Then there are as many ways to cut expenses as there are grains of sand on the beach.)

This blogger had only $300 in consumer debt but getting a blog, monetizing it, and putting the income toward the debt is a great way to pay it off. Others have successfully gotten rid of a lot of debt. The Carnival of Debt Reduction’s regular contributors and hosts are living proof that this money-making activity helps reduce the debt. Two that come to mind immediately are No Credit Needed and Blogging Away Debt.

You don’t have to blog away your debt but it’s certainly easy to get started doing this. It can cost nothing, and there are ready-made communities like the No Credit Needed Network to get you off on the right foot.

If debt isn’t producing income, it’s usually best to pay it off ASAP.  But getting a debt completely out of the way, especially an amortized debt with a fixed minimum monthly payment like a mortgage, frees up a ton of money for other purposes.  The two debts in the article were two mortgages.  In most cases, mortgages aren’t the worst kinds of debt to have, but the payment does need to be made each month until it’s paid off.  Once it is paid off, then it’s gone, and this could be hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month that could be put to other uses.

So, paying off non-performing debt is good, but paying off the debt that frees up your money the quickest should be given some consideration.

From her post:

“In my opinion, we can all cut back.  If you have a job, even if you have student loans, you can save.  I think that most of all we need to stop being so pessimistic and complaining about our financial misfortunes.  Misfortune will always be there – but you suck it up and keep working, keep striving for more.  Because what good does sitting around whining do?”

‘Nuff said.