5 things to give up if you want to be debt-free

Debt is easy to rack up — but hard to pay off.

That’s why it’s no surprise that Americans surpassed $1 trillion in credit card debt last year, the highest level since the Great Recession.

However, if you’re willing to buckle down, becoming debt-free, and doing it quickly, isn’t an impossible goal. You just have to make some sacrifices.

If you’re ready to eliminate debt once and for all, here are five things you’ll have to give up, according to real people who have paid off thousands.

Going out to eat

Even eating out a few times a week can add up quickly. So the more food you can prepare at home in advance, the better off you’ll be in terms of your food budget and your bottom line.

“My biggest [savings tip] I learned from my parents,” says Scott Alan Turner, who paid off more than $70,000 in loans to become a millionaire by 35. “My dad worked for the town his whole life. He packed a lunch every day and brought it to work. In our small-town upbringing, we didn’t have restaurants and we didn’t go out to eat all the time; we might have gone out to eat once every couple of months. I carried that over into my own life.”

Though he worked a corporate job for more than 10 years, Turner only bought lunch out a handful of times. Instead, he prepared large batches of food on Sunday to eat throughout the week.

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