Oprah’s Debt Diet Action Plan

Oprah’s Debt Diet Action Plan

Over the course of a year Oprah and her team of experts push families limits to the extreme, testing their patients with each other as well as seeing how far they go with self control. The start of this plan was rough, you may think cutting out spending is as simple as - stopping spending, but for these families it showed it was much easier for some than for others, however one thing remained the same for all; the Debt Diet was a definante wakeup call. The team of experts lay out a plan for not only the families on the show but also for the rest of America to follow to help break the viscous cycle of increasing Debt.

Step 1: How much debt do you really have?
Step 2: Track you’re spending and find extra money to pay down debt
Step 3: Learn to play the credit card game
Step 4: Stop spending

The first four steps are known as phase one of the Debt Diet Action plan. During phase one it should help people come to terms with reality, the Debt you have will NOT go away on its own. Think $10 a day won't make a big difference in your debt? Think again! With this plan you can pay off $8,000 in credit card debt in just 3 years. The four steps above should take about a month. Give yourself about a week to complete each step. Once you have completed phase one, it’s time to move on to phase two, to help you break the cycle and stay out of debt.


Step 5: Create a monthly spending plan
Step 6: Take big steps to grow your income
Step 7: Prioritize your debts and raise your credit score
Step 8: Understand your spending issues...and save!


The last Four steps are designed for long term goals dealing with your debt, paying off credit cards, learning to stay organized, paying bills on time and improving your credit score. Phase two comes with  hard decisions, which did not always go over very well for the families on the Debt Diet. They were faced with selling some of their most valuable belongings along with having to increase their income, by getting a second job.

Information above collected from: Oprah.com