Cut the Fluff
If you do not see any progress paying off debt, then you need to reassess your budget. Everyone loves all the many conveniences there are, but we don’t need them. Stop getting coffee on the way to work every morning. Get rid of cable and find a cheaper service, or use nothing until your debt is down. No one needs the newest phone. Other ways we waste money are on expensive hobbies. Instead, maybe look for part-time work to help chip away at the debt faster. There is fluff in ever budget. It is just a matter of finding what you can live without until you have eliminated your extra debt.
Tax Refund
We all look forward to hopefully getting a large tax refund. Instead of dreaming about all the ways you will spend it, put it toward any debt that you have. Any large amounts of money you get should go toward debt before anything else. It’s hard to see the impact when just paying the minimum. Paying these large sums will help you make progress. When you watch the amount going down will help keep you motivated to pay it off completely.
The Debt Snowball
Dave Ramsey pushed the snowball method. In this method, you list your debt from smallest to largest. Then your goal is to pay off the smallest debt first while only making the minimum payments on the others. Once one is paid off, you continue the trend until they are all paid off. Focusing on one at a time. Having the smaller debts get paid off quickly will keep you going. Watching progress is the best motivator. Dave Ramsey has more tips on his website on debt and other money topics.