Short of cutting up your credit cards (which some people), the trick to reduce and eliminate your credit card debt really is about budgeting, spending less and using the money you save to pay off your debt. Here are some ideas to reduce your spending.

1. Cut back on eating out - It’s amazing how cheap it is to eat at home when you really look at the cost of dining out. It does not have to be boring. Dishes like pasta and salads are really easy and cheap to make. Save time and money.

2. Cut back on coffee - Despite the economic situation we are in right now, the Starbucks around the corner is still jam packed in the morning. Lots of customers park their SUVs for 5 minutes and hop off to their their morning caffeine. Getting a packet of gourmet coffee and making them for yourself at home is cheaper and very often, better than Starbucks.

3. Cut back on Sugar - Arnold Schwartzenegger called white sugar white death in his younger bodybuilding days because white sugar gets instantly converted to calories (useless ones) in your body. It’s the easiest way to put on weight. If you can’t totally cut back on your coffee, at least try cutting back on your sugar!

4. Be your own beauty salon - Yes, to all the ladies (and some guys) who like to pamper themselves. You can do your own facial - with natural ingredients (which cost much less than the $50 facial). You can do your own manicure and pedicure (hey - Mrs Credit Card makes me do it!).

5. Stop your netflix subscription - Why pay to borrow DVDs when you can borrow them free from the library? OK - you might have to wait for popular ones but let’s be honest, how many DVDs do you really watch in a weak? Perhaps, when you first subscribed, you watched a lot. Then it slowly tapers off. My theory is this is how netflix makes money. There are no late fees. So most people hang on to videos longer, which means like postage and delivery cost for netflix when you still pay a monthly fee!

6. Cancel Your HBO subscriptions - Same theory as above. Borrow DVDs from the library. In fact, most of your favorite shows appear on cable from time to time anyway.

7. Downgrade to a more fuel efficient car - Look where gas prices are. As much as you like a fancier car, a Toyota Corollo (boring as it may be) saves you more on gasoline than any SUV! This is really common sense and looking at auto sales, most are catching to this.

8. Turn on your dishwasher only when it is full - I got this tip from Mrs Credit Card. She is the expert at stacking up the dishes and finding space where none exist! If you start the dishwasher when it is not full, you are essentially wasting water and your bills.

9. Ditto for your washing machine - Needless to say, same point as above.

10. Get cash rebates - You knew this one was coming! But hey, use coupons (only for things you really want). Get coupons off the internet from sites like www.couponcabin.com. Use a cash back credit card to earn rebates

That’s it for my top 10 ideas to cut your bills.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 3:12 am and is filed under Personal Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.