As someone who just managed that this year, a few pointers.
1. Budget.
I know it sucks, and I know it is a hassle, still, no way around it. Grab excel or numbers or openOffice and do it start of each month.
2. Split accounts
I have used this technique to great success.
- 1st account is the "INCOMING" account, This is where all incoming money goes to and all fixed costs (see 1. Budget) go away from.
- 2nd account is a "pocket money" account. Pocket money is transferred there. Nice about this: You can spend ALL of this and your bills and food are still paid.
- 3rd account is a savings account. Not much to explain here. Make sure to save a good amount.
3. Keep at it
4. Get a seperate wallet for "food and household". I usually get a laugh about this, as it was something our parents used to do. Still, I withdraw cash beginning of the month and pay my groceries from this. Works wonders.
5. Keep at it
6. Use a big chunk from your savings account to remove all remaining debt at once.
7. Enjoy freedom.
I know people will go on about "credit history", "credit rating", etc... However, I plan to nev er go there again.
Reminds me of the tech-company I worked in for a few years.
One of my friends was working as a programmer there. The guy was crazy and when the inevitable relaunch came, he worked insane hours, would code at night and on the weekends at home.
Our CEO, egomaniac that he was noticed that he would arrive late at work.
He made the technical manager chew him out despite his protests while standing watch next to him.
The developer quit shortly after and the company tanked after one more year.
One of my long-standing projects is predicting soccer bets.