The day I realized that my financial situation was spinning out of control and that I had way to much debt is the day I said enough is enough. I then took a piece of paper and pen with me every where I went and started writing down everything I spent everyday for two weeks. After the two weeks was over I sat down with my self and said self WOW are you wasting your money foolishly, I spent half a pay check over spending on items at gas stations and out to eat food. I couldn’t believe how much money I was just throwing out the window! On top of that I have a bad habit (that I wasn’t about to quit yet for the sake of debt) I chew snuff, that was costing me $6.57 a day times 30 days equals 200 bucks a month! Watching for two weeks how I spent my money also made me realize how I put on all my extra weight over the years, gas stations and out to eat food. I was spending on average $25.00 dollars a day between bottles of pop, cans of snuff, out to eat lunches, snacks and other miscellaneous items from gas stations, that is around 750.00 dollars a month on peer junk plus I was slowly getting fat! This was only the beginning of my calculations I forgot to tell you I have a wife and three kids who spend money too.

I decided from here on out I was going to stop over spending and get out of debt I also decided I was going to lead my family by example. I would learn how to control my spending habits before I would even worry about what everybody else in the family was spending money on. My first step I took to get out of debt was writing down all the ways I could save money.

1. Start buying groceries for my lunches and snacks I was no longer going to eat out or eat fast food for lunch anymore.

2. Start a garden, I got three benefits out of this, healthy food, exercise and saved a boat load of money.

3. Find a generic snuff I could buy that was cheaper (since I wasn’t ready to stop chewing yet)

4. Dont buy any items from a gas station that I could get at a discount store, buy only gas

5. Make my kids lunches instead of giving them money (this way they also ate healthier)

6. Stop drinking pop, (this was a hard one...I was addicted to it, it took a couple weeks to stop feeling tired and for the headaches to go away but they did

7. Save going out for dinner for special occasions and teach my kids how to cook

It wasn’t easy but I accomplished all the things on my list in about three months, it was a relief I actually had some extra money and I didn’t have to demand anybody in the family to cut spending money or anything like that, they just started following my example. It might have been the 25 pounds I lost in three months or my being less stressed out and happier but we all started being more conscious of how we spent are money and what we ate.

The Next step I took in my quest to get out of debt was writing a list of every place I owed money to and how much the monthly payment was. It looked something like the list below.

1. Mortgage $700.00 Monthly Balance $98,000

2. Car Payment $350 $12,000

3. Improvement $150 $6,500

Loan

4. Credit card1 $75 $2,500

5. Credit card2 $100 $4,700

6. and so on and so on....

I then made a budget I could live by, and started paying all the extra money I was saving from my first steps I took to eliminate debt, and paid the extra money on the lowest balanced item in my list until it was paid off. I just kept moving from lowest balance to next lowest balance until I got to my house payment and by that time I had enough extra money to start tripling my house payment. I stuck to my budget and any extra money I made from anything else went straight to getting out of debt. It was really amazing how fast I was completely out of debt. Today I don’t buy anything on credit if I cant afford it I make it a goal and save enough money to pay for it in full. Not only in the process did I get out of debt, but I also amassed quite a nice nest egg because I saved so much money.

The one thing I have to say is these are not all my ideas I got them from reading books if their is one thing I can promote to you is to read, information is power it not only reinforces what you are trying to accomplish but it inspires ideas. There are many ways to save money and ideas for getting out of debt you have to do what works best for you. I have also realized through my debt reduction plan that most people dont realize where they waste the most money is through everyday expenditures.