In today’s modern world, where materialism rules and instant gratification is the answer how do we take control of our ever growing mountain of credit card debt?. There are many different forms of debt and if we don’t learn to say a big resounding ‘no’, then before we know it, the time comes, when we find that we have a level of consumer debt that is so overwhelming, we wonder if there is ever going to be light at the end of the tunnel.

There are occasions when debt, if properly managed can actually save you a lot of money if you know what strategies to apply and when to apply them. The secret to success is to look at what cash flow you have and to study your money cycle so that you can clearly identify how much money is coming in, and how much money is going out.

This will mean siting down and working out what your weekly commitments add up, and how much you have left over. For many, reading this article, you will say ‘but there’s never any money left over after I have paid all of my bills, so how do I change that’. Following is an example of how you can successfully reduce your credit card debt.

In this modern world of easily accessible credit cards, people are fast creating an epidemic of spending well beyond their means because they have access to many lines of credit. One way to reduce your credit card debt is to become very hard with yourself and simply cut up all of your credit cards except one. This will possibly be the hardest part of your new Deb Free Focus mindset.

In doing so, you will have immediately eliminated the temptation to continue spending money that you don’t have, because is it was instantaneously at your finger tips whenever you have that desire to buy something.

The next thing that you will need to do, if you are truly serious about creating a debt free focus, is to concentrate on paying as much as possible of one credit card at a time, whilst maintaining the minimum monthly balances on the rest of them. To achieve this, simply do the following:

• Add up and total the amount that you were paying into all of your credit cards.

• Look at the minimum amounts payable on each credit card

• Make this minimum payment on all cards that you cut up

• Pay the balance of monies left over into your existing credit card.

It is also advisable to wrap a little note around the credit card that you did not cut up that says ‘do I really need to use my card for this purchase’, so that if you are tempted to use that card, you will be given the opportunity to stop and think before going ahead to make that next purchase. This is a simple, but yet very powerful method that I have seen work on many occasions with those that are termed ‘credit card junkies’.

There is no quick fix solution to reducing the amount of credit card debt that you have, but with your new found debt-free focus, doing the above is a guaranteed solution if you are seriously prepared to help yourself get out of debt.

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This is a guest post written by Coleen Cook, a student of MakeMoneyFromWriting.com, where she is learning how to turn freelance writing skills into consistent income.