Are you buried up in your neck in debt at the moment? Don’t worry, because I’ve been there myself. It can be tough and it can feel hopeless, but it’s certainly not. Did you know that the average American household has as much as $15,000 worth of credit card debt? Yeah, those are some pretty staggering numbers. You just have to realize that this is only a stepping stone in your life and you can conquer your debt. However, it’s not going to correct itself on its own, as there are some things you’ll have to do to get out of debt.

#1. Make a budget.

This is going to be the very first step you’ll want to take in getting rid of debt. It doesn’t matter if you use a website, an app or Microsoft Excel to create your budget, as long as you create one. List you income and your expenses in your budget, so you can analyze where you need to cut spending. If you don’t start to scale back on your spending, you’ll only end up in more debt.

#2. Pay off your credit cards.

It’s important that you start working on your credit card debt immediately, because they’re known for having insane interest rates. Make a list of all the credit cards you have and the interest rates for each one of them. Now, you’ll want to focus on the credit card that has the highest interest rate and pay only the minimum payment on the other ones. Always focus on paying off credit cards that have the highest interest rates first.

#3. Transfer your balance.

Do you have a credit card with high interest and you’re confident you could probably pay it off soon? If so, you should transfer your balance to another credit card company that offers a 0% interest balance transfer for a certain period of time. Once you complete the transfer, you should do your best to pay off the balance before you begin to accrue interest. If you do this correctly, you could save hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

#4. Stop using your credit cards.

Until you get your finances under control, you need to stop using your credit cards. Consider leaving your credit card at home when you go out or even freezing the credit card in a block of ice. Yes, people have seriously done that.

#5. Use extra money to pay off debts.

Did you get some money in a birthday card? Maybe you got a work bonus at your job? How about your income tax return? What do you plan to do with that extra money? Instead of planning a luxurious vacation or something of that nature, you should consider taking the extra cash and paying it towards your debts. It’s extra money and it’s not like you were considering this extra money to be part of your budget, so why not?

Do you have any tips that will help people get out of debt? If so, leave them in the comments section below.