How to Get Yourself Out of Dumb Debt... I Hope

Confession: I am still a bit swamped in my dumb debt. I have not gotten myself out of it yet, but here I am, proclaiming to the world that I have been an idiot with my finances in the past (and present) and it is high time I gave myself a public shaming.

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It would probably make sense if I first explained what I consider to be "dumb debt". I'll start by explaining what I consider to be debt that is (usually) reasonable (there are exceptions to every rule): student loans, car payments, medical bills, and your mortgage. Dumb debt is most everything else.

What Is My "Dumb Debt"?
For me, most of my dumb debt is still related to my early years of "independence" when I got my first credit cards and thought I could get away with paying for most everything with them, including occasional trips across the country with no real purpose. Other forms I've incurred are the "I thought I could afford to pay just that much more extra on this bill, but turns out I can't do math" debt that actually puts you further in the hole than you started. The shit that turns into a truly vicious circle.

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Plan Time - Part 1
Here's  what I'm doing, then. I've already created a full list of bills I must pay each month, where to pay them, logins and passwords, and the amount of money these bills tend to be.

1. List out all the credit cards and determine which ones you have had the longest.
2. Cancel ALL of the credit cards other than the oldest (the older the card, the more credit you are building with it, the way I understand it).
3. Take the still active credit cards and lock them away somewhere safe so you won't use them.
4. Continue to pay minimums on everything and put any (actual) extra money you can toward the cards that you have canceled until they are nothing but dust in the wind.
5. As you keep going, choose one of your other bits of existing debt at a time to focus on and knock down.

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I've just finished Step 2, so that's the easy part done... Once I have a chance, I'll be securely locking away my remaining active cards (my oldest is a Discover, so I figured it would make sense to keep one MasterCard as well since Discover is only valid, well... occasionally). Making the payments will also be manageable. I just need to pick one account at a time and knock that shit out!

Plan Time - Part 2
Obviously, I'm not exactly addressing ALL of the issues related to my dumb debt with Part 1 of my plan. That's where Part 2 comes in.... lifestyle change.

1. Make a list of all the non-debt-related bills you pay every month and identify which ones are necessities.
2. Cancel anything you can live without.
3. Call some of the places that provide things you require (e.g. your internet provider) to see about any deals they can offer.
4. Come up with a game plan that works for you to stop impulse spending in its tracks.

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Well, I've got Step 1 taken care of, but now I really need to rock out the hard part of cancelling the things I don't need. Then the oh-so-fun part of calling Comcast to request that I pay less for the same internet speed.
It's Step 4 that I'm really stuck on, however. Part of my impulse spending is in regards to food and eating out. For that, I can just work harder to make food at home and bring lunches to work. But what about all the rest of the impulse spending I do? What about my penchant for travelling and taking absurd weekend road trips?

Unfortunately, I don't have any answers for those questions other than, "Don't. Fucking. Waste. Money!" Clearly, that's not the greatest game plan. But I guess it's a starting point.

Oh yeah. And one last thing. Give yourself a freebie every once in a while! Just make sure that whatever it is is within reason(able pricing for your money). You can't be perfect ALL THE TIME. So don't try or things'll just suck.

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