Most of us became caught up in the “instant gratification” scene of the past decade. To fund our desires we borrowed heavily because the economy was buoyant, loans were readily available and credit cards just fell into our hands.

It’s a different world now and most of us need to do something quickly about our level of debt. Bankruptcy and late payment of bills have long-term implications for our credit history, so we must become very inventive about getting our debt levels down.

Immediate changes you need to make

 Commit to reducing your debt. This sounds obvious but unless you are determined, you will back off when it gets hard.

 Act quickly. The faster you pay off your loans, the less you pay in interest.  Be ruthless. There is no room for sentimentality in this exercise. Things you love to have or to do must go, even if just temporarily.

 Stop spending! Again this sounds obvious, but you cannot reduce your existing debt quickly at one end while money is flowing out of the other.

Turn unwanted items into quick cash

 Look through every room, every closet and every storage space in your house and garage to identify things you don’t need.

 Decide on a selling method for each type of item.

 Hold a yard sale for larger items like bikes, scooters, exercise equipment, unwanted hand and power tools, garden equipment etc.

 Use Ebay for books, CDs, DVDs, jewellery, clothing, soft toys etc.

 Your local newspaper may be a good vehicle for selling unwanted household items. Remember – what’s trash to you is gold to others.

Turn wanted items into quick cash

 Do this again to find things you still want but may only use a couple of times of year.  Use the same strategies in the above list to sell them.

 If you have more than one car, assess if you can get by with one. If so, sell the other.

 Remember, these items have not left the planet. When you are debt-free, you can buy replacements, using cash, of course.

As this cash comes in, do not spend it. Again, this seems obvious, but sometimes, when small amounts of extra money end up in our possession, we spend it because it doesn’t seem enough to make a difference.

If you do this, your efforts will be wasted. Pay this extra money straight off your debt. It might not seem like much at the time, but small amounts paid regularly will get you out of debt.

You may still need other strategies to reduce long-term debt like a mortgage, but by applying some budgeting discipline at one end, and using quick cash to eliminate your smaller loans, you will soon be debt-free.