Make a List of Expenses

• Making a list of your expenses is an important part of getting debt free because it will help you analyze where you can reduce your expenses. For example, if after writing your budget you see that you're spending $10 a day at a high-end coffee shop, you might consider making instant coffee at home to save money. This will help you save cash for paying off bills, which will help you get out of debt.
  
  

Call Your Creditors

• Communicating with your creditors is an important part of getting debt free, according to Bank Rate. If you ignore your creditors, they might send your debts to a collection agency, which will make your problem even worse. If you ignore phone calls from the collection agency, your debts might end up in court. Then you'll have court costs and have to pay more money. Calling your creditors helps because they'll be less likely to send your debts to a collection agency if you tell them when you'll be able to make another payment.
  
  

Credit Counseling

• The Federal Trade Commission suggests that some people should use credit-counseling agencies if they're having difficulty staying within their budgets. Credit counseling services help consumers work out repayment plans with creditors. Many of the credit counseling services that exist are non-profit, but that doesn't mean they won't charge you a fee for their services. Credit counseling isn't for everyone and you should always check out fees these companies may charge before deciding if credit counseling is right for you.
  
  

Debt Consolidation

• Debt consolidation is another option for people in debt, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Debt consolidation involves taking out a large loan to pay off all of your debts at once. After the payoff, you make monthly payments to repay your debt consolidation loan. The advantage is you'll only have to keep track of making one monthly payment instead of several. However, it's important to look at how much the interest rate is on a debt consolidation loan because you might end up paying more money in interest.
  
  

Bankruptcy

• People in debt should only consider bankruptcy as a last resort, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Declaring personal bankruptcy involves going to court and means you don't have to pay off most of your debt. However, declaring personal bankruptcy is extremely serious because it stays on your credit report for ten years and makes it near impossible to get credit for a car or home.