In the wake of the Great Recession, many people found themselves in the throws of financial hardship because of a lack of easy credit. However painful it was, those people had to find the discipline within themselves to begin living within their means, even though their habits as formed by the last decade of easy credit and a “pay it back later” mentality screamed at them to continue living and spending lavishly.

Many of these people found themselves close to bankruptcy, more in the past five years than in the previous 15. In order to fully prepare themselves for the rigors of the bankruptcy process, many of those individuals and families had to completely reverse their thinking when it came to spending and saving.

You must stop spending and save!

If you are one of these people, the number one way to help yourself through the bankruptcy process is to stop spending and start saving. You would be surprised at the amount of money floats through your fingers in the form of impulse buys and frivolous purchases that are simply not necessary to make.

Regarding Credit Cards, cut em’ up!

The first thing that you can do is to cut up any and all retail credit cards that you may have. They serve no purpose other than to make you spend more than you have when you walk into a certain store, and they can be habit forming.

In terms of paying back the money that you have already borrowed, many financial experts recommend the “snowball” method of paying back loans. That is, begin with the smallest loan and pay it back in full to create some momentum. Then move on to the next smallest loan and pay that back before moving on to the next one, and so on and so forth.

No more expensive restaurants & big purchases

Stop going out to expensive restaurants and other places in which you pay for convenience. Yes, this means that you must also stop buying food from the gas station as well. Most of that food, aside from being unhealthy, is overpriced. Take a single trip to the grocery store and learn how to invest so that you will not have to spend an extra dollar every time you crank up the car to go somewhere. Those saved dollars add up rather quickly.

If you are in such a financial pickle that not even saving more money will help you, you may want to consider lawsuit loans from AnyLawsuits.com to help give you a little financial leverage so that you can get back on your feet.

No matter what, you must realize that no financial situation is completely untenable. You can always get back on your feet if you are willing to exercise the appropriate amount of discipline and change your lifestyle.