Being in my early 30’s I find it freeing to see my savings account grow with each passing month. Just a few years ago I was in debt and felt trapped under the load of all of my personal credit cards. That is when I finally decided to make some personal changes on how I looked at money. To get out of debt I knew I had to cut back on spending and start applying that money to my debt. Here is what I did:
Stop paying interest: One of the easiest ways to start saving money quickly is to stop paying interest on credit card debt. Even though I was in debt I could still qualify for a balance transfer to another one of my credit card companies. Most balance transfer options allow you to transfer debt from one credit card to another for a fee of 3-4% of the transferred amount. These balance transfers also come with 0% interest for a specified time. I was lucky to get 18 months of 0% interest, which in turn saved me thousands of dollars just in interest alone.
Stop eating out: The average fast food meal for lunch cost $8, while the average mid-priced restaurant meal for dinner cost $20. Take this into account for the number of times you eat out. I would eat out at least 4 different times each week, all for dinner. This comes to $320 a month, just on dinner. I found that if I cut back on eating out, I could save a great deal of money, which I then applied to paying down my credit card debts.
Start carpooling: I work in an office about 25 miles from where I live and asked some of the people I work with if they would be interested in carpooling. One particular guy lived a few blocks away from me so we both decided to carpool as much as possible. Every month I would drive about 1,000 miles to work and back home. By carpooling I am saving about $100 every month just on gas, not to mention the maintenance cost from oils changes and tune ups.
The money I saved from carpooling and from not eating out I applied to my credit card debt. No only was I paying an additional $420 every month towards my debts, I was also paying 0% interest on my card for 18 months. This taught me that I could make changes to my personal financial situation and to get out of debt quickly.