Debt management is something that I am very knowledgeable about since I was in debt for about 8 to 9 years with what seemed like at the time with £17,000 a lot of money, but now that debt has been paid off with having to budget our expenses I have decided that saving money is the best way to buy the things that we want and getting credit cards is no longer an option for us.

Although that may not be the option for you as you may want to prove that you can maintain credit for other reasons such as obtaining a personal loan later on down the line, so you may want to get a couple of credit cards and just spend what you can afford to spend and pay it off as quick as you can or within the payment time frame, so that your credit score is good and stays in good standing.

Having a good debt management plan is vital if you want to get out of debt and be free of debt, so I recommend doing the following:

Expenses/outgoings - Make an accurate list of all your expenses which will be your outgoings, and remember to include everything that you pay out and even estimate your food and grocery bills.

Earnings/benefits/in comings- Make a separate list of all your incoming money which could be your earnings or any payments you receive into your account or paid directly to you.

Now you want to total up your incoming money and take away what you have to pay out with your outgoings and then see what money you have left if any at the end of this, so the next thing we have to do is look at all the things you have to pay out and see if you can save money or lessen the expense of your outgoings.

Reduce your expenses example

I do this individually to see how I could save, so for example lets take food, I would make a list of how much I spent on my last shop as I usually keep my shopping receipts, so I know what I spent lets say I spent £100 for the whole weeks food, now my aim is to reduce that and look at all of the cheaper food alternatives that I could buy and keep this list as basic as possible and leave out sweets and luxuries.

Cheap food items could be the supermarkets own brand which in my opinion is sometimes just as good as the expensive stuff and you can cut your food bill in half buy buying these items.

Your debt management plan should include your main bills too such as electric and gas as these are two that can be reduced with a bit of scrimping and saving here and there and usually this means remembering to switch stuff off and only use it when you really need to, this could also be applied to your other utility bills if they are not a set standard charge and what you need to target is to reduce your bill by looking at it carefully.

Once you've done all this money that's outgoing study time, you may find after a short period of time that you have saved money and the amount you have left shall be used to pay off our debts, but it doesn't end there, because you need to constantly monitor your outgoings for any changes and also examine your left over money you'd have anyway and see if that could be used to pay off our debts too. Money is a funny thing because sometimes we think if we start to scrimp and save it we will just have enough to pay all our bills and debts, but I've found once I've worked out all of this I always have something left to spend on what I want.

Being in debt can limit your spending, but it should also motivate you to break free of the debt cycle and want to get rid of your restricting debt, and doing this method of debt management by looking at all of your expenses and just organizing them into a realistic and helpful plan to save money and manage your debt.

Try not to get into too much debt and try to save money when you can.