The Debt Diet program was popularized by Oprah Winfrey when it was featured during a multi-episode series that began airing on February 17, 2006. For this program, Oprah enlisted three financial specialists, Jean Chatzky, Glinda Bridgforth, and David Bach, to develop a plan by which personal debt could be eliminated. The Debt Diet programs consists of 2 phases broken down into 4 steps each.
Step 1 of the Debt Diet program is to find out how much debt you actually have. This means looking at all your credit cards and other loans and adding them up. The Debt Diet portion of Oprah’s website provides a handy chart to help you out. Step 2 is to track your spending. Find the little luxuries that you spend money on that add up and put that money to better use, namely paying off your debt. You’d be surprised how much you can put aside by maybe giving up fast food or buying cheaper generic products.
This brings us to step 3 of the Debt Diet Program what Oprah calls the “Credit Card Game.” This is simply learning some tricks of the credit card trade such as making higher payments, contacting your creditors and requesting lower interest rates, and learning which cards to pay down first. Step 4 is simple: stop spending. It can be tempting to use our credit cards so we’re advised to not even carry them with us and to instead use checks, cash, and debit cards to pay for things.
Step 5 of the Debt Diet program is to create a monthly spending plan. This is basically making a budget, but the Oprah website has charts and worksheets to help you on this difficult path. Step 6 of Debt Diet is to take big steps to grow your income. This step is mostly advised for those who still don’t have success after following the first 5 steps, but can be utilized by individuals who would like to speed up the process as well. These ideas are pretty extreme though and include moving and giving up your car.
Moving on to step 7 of the Debt Diet program, we’re advised to prioritize our debts and raise our credit score. The advice here is basically common sense. Prioritize secured debts first, debts that can cause wages to be garnished, services such as doctor bills, and then finally unsecured debts such as credit cards. Finally, any outstanding debt to friends and family should be repaid, always good advice.
Finally, step 8, the last step of the Debt Diet program is understanding our spending issues. This is simply examining ourselves to better understand our spending habits. Often we spend more when we are with others who are spending money as a form of social interaction. Spending also is a great way to make ourselves feel better if we’ve had a bad day or maybe just feeling down.
The Debt Diet program has been extremely successful by helping many people get and out debt and stay out of debt.
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Frequently Asked Questions
My hun%@aol.comsband and I filed chapture 13 and ...
By: alb | 15-08-2008
My hun%@aol.comsband and I filed chapture 13 and have not been able to keep up with the repayment plan and are now behind. We filed chapture 13 because we owned a home. At the hearing we told our lawyer that we could not afford to keep the home. He said go on with the bankrucy as is and deal with it later, that was a year ago . We lost the house 4 months ago and now have rented (rent are very high here because so many people are losing their homes) an apartmnet. My husbands earning have been going down and I am retire. We can not keep up with the payments. We find it hard to pay the daily living bills and now the creditors are starting to call again. My husband has told the lawyer and trustee that we can't afford to do the monthly payment. They just keep telling him to try. Is there any thing we can do. I don't know what to do or where to go.
How do I get a credit card company to negotiate
By: WorkingMom | 11-08-2008
How do I get a credit card company to negotiate a payoff like the debt consolidation companies do?
I am going through bankruptcy (3 yrs) and my ...
By: Jody | 09-08-2008
I am going through bankruptcy (3 yrs) and my landlord has asked me to move, i was told that it is a state law that she cannot put me out until i have completed my bankruptcy course (7 yrs.)--Is this true?
Sister
Should I declare bankruptcy?
By: snoopy52 | 07-08-2008
We need assistance in someone to tell us what to do. I am in the middle of a break up/divorce after 11 years. We have been together that long, just never got married. We have a combined est amount of $15k in credit card debt and about $265k in home loans for the 1st and 2nd mortgages. The house is worth about $240k according to the few agents I have spoken to. We are trying to figure out which option is best for us. Should we just do a bankruptcy thing and let the house go and get the credit cards written off or should we do a short sale and then get a personal line of credit to separate the credit cards and just pay that off over the next 8 to 10 years. If we do bankruptcy, how long will it take to get our credit ratings back up? I am open to either a short sale or bankruptcy, just trying to figure out what is best in regards to getting this mess behind us and what would be best for our credit score.
Can a debtor file a bankruptcy for the sole ...
By: lelandwmckee | 07-08-2008
Can a debtor file a bankruptcy for the sole purpose to eliminate "one" judgment against them or this is the primary reason they filed? Wouldn't this constitute fraud of the bankruptcy system?
Can a creditor take you to court 6 years after chapter 7 bankruptcy was dismissed?
By: flyer | 07-08-2008
If you file chapter 7 and it is discharged can a creditor who sold their company to another take you back to court for the debt claimed on the bk?
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