The bad news is … there is no easy way to do this. The saying ‘buy now, pay later’ rings true no matter how hard you try to ignore it.

The good news is … there are steps you can take to reduce the interest you’re paying, reduce your debt and ultimately be rid of it.

The quick steps:

• Understand your debt – record the amounts you owe, to who, the payments, the interest rate and the end date of the loan.
• Rank them in terms of interest rate (highest at the top).
• Review your budget to see how much you can pay towards your debt…really – after taking a hard look at your needs versus wants spending.

Formulate a repayment plan making sure that you keep making the minimum payments on all your debts, pay extra to the highest interest rate debts first and keep at it until their gone.

Here are some suggestions to speed up the process:

• Ask your creditors about lower rate options (sometimes there’s a fee for a low rate credit card but the fee is small compared to the amount of interest you’re paying).
• Ask your bank and ask about consolidation options (banks often require a co-signor for consolidation loans but you may have other options such as a line of credit).
• Consider working out an arrangement with family (if you prove to them that you can afford the payments and you will pay them interest). *This option is not ideal as keeping separation between family and finances is a good principle.

And the obvious:

• Stick to buying needs rather than wants
• Stop using credit to pay for things