When my husband and I first got together he had about $3,500 in credit card debt, $3,000 in student loans and a loan his parents gave him for about $1500. I was thankfully debt free at the time. The biggest part of paying down our debt was living below our means. Our rent was pretty reasonable, we had no cable, very basic internet, and cooked a lot together at home. We both had decent salaries although his fluctuated month to month. Most of his debt was on one card so we paid off the smaller balance and then consolidated the rest of the debt to a 0% card for 12 months with a goal to pay it off in a year. Every month whatever we could put towards the card without affecting our day to day bills and expenses we did. Sometimes $200, sometimes as much as $500. Seeing it go down was very encouraging and within a year we had 0 credit card debt. Then we upped the amounts he was paying on his student loans while making small payments to his parents of $25 or $50 a month. We paid off the student loan and within a couple months were able to repay everything to his parents. They were quite surprised and very thankful. With no debt we then were able to create a good savings account for ourselves and even adopted a few luxuries like getting cable when the TV conversion thing happened a few years ago. We still use our credit cards to keep our credit history and earn points but pay everything off at the end of the month. We like to have our credit cards work for us now.

I finally paid off my 3yr 5,000 dollar 25%APR personal loan in 1yr and 9mos. I wish I could have done it faster and saved more interest but life roller coastered. Moving on to credit card debt!!!