10 Steps to living a debt-free life

What drives you to spend? Keep receipts, categorise your spending and analyse your spending patterns. What bad habits do you have? Are you paying unnecessary costs due to fines and penalties? The first step to changing a bad habit is acknowledging it.

Only go to the shops when you have to, don’t sign up with sites that bombard you with “special offers” on a daily basis– this just encourages you to buy what you don’t need.

Negotiate / shop around for best prices and rates.  

Buy in bulk to get discounts; don’t go into the shop without a shopping list (and stick to it!); use rewards programmes to get additional discounts, for example with the Woolworths Rewards programme, you can get 10% discount on selected products; use a debit card for your purchases.

If you do use a credit card, pay the full outstanding balance every month.

You’d be surprised how many charges and costs are debited to your accounts without your authorisation! Challenge these costs.

Know what interest rate you’re paying. You may want to consider consolidating high interest bearing debt onto loans with a lower rate.

Always aim to pay off personal loans over the shortest possible term. Be prepared to sacrifice now for your future financial wellbeing. Once you’ve paid off a loan, apply the surplus funds towards paying off another debt rather than spending the additional amount each month.

Regard your savings as a creditor and pay via a monthly debit order.

Budget and track yourself, and reward yourself now and again for “good behaviour”!