You need to establish a budget in order to have spare cash at the end of the month after all the usual bills have been paid for the repayment of your debts. To establish the budget you need to sit together as a family to ascertain and agree a financial strategy. In the discussion you need to decide which expenditure is the most essential and which are a luxury and cut down on the expenses appropriately. This will be a good base start as a debt free plan for the family.

Always consider getting professional financial help from credit counseling companies or debt relief agencies who are very helpful in advising the best way to go with your finances.

One very helpful technique when formulating a debt free strategy is to prioritize your debts. Prioritizing them in the correct order is the key so after you have listed the debts you owe, re-order them by interest rate rather than the balance. By putting the high interest rate debts at the top of the list you will quickly see which ones need addressing first. Always concentrate your efforts of paying off the high interest rate debts before all others. The reason being is that you will save more money by paying off the expensive loans or credit first – but still maintaining payments on the other debts.

Another beneficial method of reducing debt is debt consolidation. This involves combining all of your loans, credit cards and other debts into one monthly repayment. You can often get a far better deal of interest rate across all combined debts by consolidating your debts. You can either take out a new debt consolidation agreement which covers – and pays off - all of your debts so that you are only beholden to one lender or you can combine them into your mortgage. The great thing about debt consolidation is that you will end up with a lower monthly repayment thus freeing up spare cash for you to enjoy your life with less debt worries. However, be aware that you will usually extend the term of the debt in order to achieve this. This will mean paying back more interest in the long term.