You might be doing some last minute gift-wrapping tonight and maybe the cost of all those gifts is finally hitting you. Paying back holiday debt can be a long process if you haven’t budgeted, but small sacrifices now can make sure your credit card debt is paid off sooner rather than later.

“If you didn’t plan you have to say ok, we spent this much for Christmas, what is our plan to pay it? Otherwise, you might be maintaining this debt for quite a long time,” said Financial Counselor Midea Porterfield with GreenPath Financial Wellness in Saginaw Township.

To avoid paying off your Christmas debt for years to come, Porterfield said to look at the minimum payment and see if you can pay more.

However, in order to figure that out, you’ll need a budget.

“Whether it’s paper, electronic, we have a lot of clients that use Excel,” Porterfield said.

She said to be brutal about where you can cut, whether it’s your daily latte habit or your weekly take-out bill. It’s the small sacrifices that can help pay off your credit card debt sooner rather than later.

 

 

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