I echo the other commenters who’ve suggested selling things. I’ve sold books, CDs and DVDs on Amazon, which can be something of a hassle in terms of packaging and mailing, but you get to set the price so depending on what you are selling you can make a pretty good amount.

Have you set long term goals? Things like saving for retirement (and eventually coming up with a specific number), buying a house, a trip to Italy, whatever your dream may be. It feels good to know that you’re working not only toward being debt-free but toward making your dreams come true also. I look forward to reading the rest of your journey as it continues. Good luck!

At this point, if you’re intent on getting out of debt, I’d find all of the CD’s, DVD’s, and other entertainment that you don’t use in an average month and sell them. Preplayed.com buys used DVDs, CD, and video games and pay through paypal. They don’t buy everything, but you might be surprised at what they’ll give you money for. I got almost $2 for a Monster Ballads CD! I hadn’t listened to it in years.

Enjoy this time. It’s when your motivation is highest, and your budgetary honeymoon will take you farther than you think.

As far as budgets, that is exactly where I am now. I recommend starting off, take a month (or two) and keep track of EVERY penny. Every penny. Once you know how much you spend on things like groceries, gasoline, etc it is much easier to come up with a realistic budget that works for you. I tracked for three months and next month is my first official “follow the budget I spent three months constructing” month. I am hoping it goes well .

And throw every last extra unassigned penny at that debt. Hard. Beat down the debt!

You can do it! Congratulations!!

And shop around for all your regular bills. I don’t know how it works in the States, but over here there is actually pretty good competition for things like insurance (car / house), electricity, natural gas, mobile phone, broadband, etc. Saving money on these is great because its repeated every month and there’s no need for any actual alteration in your lifestyle.

I use a simple, well, maybe not that simple, spreadsheet to run my budget and track my expenses against it. It’s a conglomeration of formatting and calculations from several others, with my own bits added in. If you’d like a copy, I have one annotated and ready to send out. Just shoot me an email. I’m happy to share what I have.