Making the commitment to pay off credit card debt is one of the most proactive things you can to do improve your life. That debt wears on you, making you wonder if you’re going to be able to pay all your bills. You worry about your credit score, and if you’re going to be harassed by bill collectors. Here are five steps that will help you out of the hole.

Five Steps To Getting Out of Debt

1: Plan your way out of this. Tally up all your credit card bills, and sort them from highest interest rate to lowest. Pay the minimum on all of them, and devote any extra cash in your budget to paying off the highest interest rate card first. Once that one’s paid off, reward yourself ” take $25 a month out of the budget that had been going to paying off the highest interest rate card and start paying down the second highest rate one. Use that $25 for something fun and something special as your reward for being good.

2: Balance is important in all things. If you still have a zero interest balance transfer option, look seriously into transferring as much as you can reasonably expect to pay off in the introductory period; this can save you substantial amounts of money in interest.

3: Cash in some equity. This is controversial, and may be harder to do in the current economy. If you’ve got equity in your home, and you aren’t under an upside-down mortgage, consider retiring your debt by using your home equity to pay it off ” your mortgage interest rate is nearly assured of being lower than any credit card rate. However, be disciplined about this. Too many people did this, and then went out and ran the credit cards up again, eating the equity in their homes.

4: Discipline is important. Build a budget, and make it a livable budge. Budget your luxuries in first. Spend the time to go through three months of receipts to see how much you’re actually spending out of pocket on things like gasoline, groceries and fast food. Track it for a month after you’ve built your three month average. Notice how much you’re spending on things that can be cut back? Just learning to eat in and pack a lunch to work can save you a hundred dollars a month. (Don’t believe me? Figure that a typical fast food meal costs 7 dollars. If you eat one of these four days a week, that’s 28 dollars a week, and over a hundred dollars a month. Throw in eating out for dinner because you’re too lazy to cook and it goes even higher.) Build your budget with some slack in it, and with some fun expenses in it too. Just because you’re working off a debt doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to have fun too.

5: Consider consumer credit counseling. Sometimes, learning how to payoff credit card debt is not something that can be done easily. It is troubling and overwhelming. Therefore, reaching out to a service provider may be the best route to take. You can learn to better control your spending and budget, get your balances and interest rates lowered, and pay off your debt in months, in some cases.

How to pay off credit card debt, one of the most important things you can do for yourself is to be committed to this process. Once you commit to paying down debt so you can live free and clear, you will be in a better place to be successful.