Debt can be beneficial. While this may sound counterintuitive, some types of debt can help your credit score and make it easier to finance a home, a car, or another loan. Even a credit card can help increase your credit score and a lender’s perception of trustworthiness. However, if you let your debt get out of control (through a lack of discipline or unfortunate circumstances), that debt can start to feel like a heavy weight you can’t get off.

Whether you want to learn to manage debt before you get in too deep, or you need a little help crawling out from what feels like an impossible situation, these tips can help you get started:

Pay more than the minimum payment

One of the most important things you can do to decrease your debt (or keep it from ballooning out of control) is to pay more than the minimum payment due each month. Paying more than the minimum is especially important when you are dealing with credit cards. Scrounge up an extra $100 bucks a month to pay towards your debt. (If you have more than one, you can try the snowballing technique). This is likely the single-most effective way to pay off debt quickly (other than winning the lottery, which is not a wise money-making idea!).

Create a budget

Creating a budget helps you visualize where your money is going. Seeing where every penny of your paycheck goes will help you identify areas you can cut back. Simple things like overdraft fees, late fees at the library, eating out too often, and too many trips to the grocery store, can add up quickly. Once you see where your cash is going, find out ways to eliminate or reduce spending in areas you can. (You don’t have to completely give up eating out, just do it half the amount you usually do.)

Take a bite out of your mortgage by listing rooms in your home

For most people, their largest debt is their mortgage payment. The average homeowner pays around $1,100 a month for their home. You could try offsetting some of that expense by listing a room in your house through the Airbnb. Check out the link to see how much you could make in your area. For example, the average home in Salt Lake City could make around $600 a month listing a private room, four times per month. Over the course of a year, that’s an easy $7,200. Moreover, Airbnb offers protection against property damage and theft. You could use that income to pay part of your mortgage or tackle another bill.

Chat with your creditors

If you are having a tough time paying your debt, call your creditors. One of the worst things you can do is stop making payments. Your credit score will drop, and you could face a legal battle. It never hurts to ask for a deferment, lower interest rate, or a debt settlement. While your credit score could drop if you settle for a lesser amount than your original debt, it’s better than not paying at all. While you could do a lot of this work yourself, there are lots of debt relief services that can help you through the process.

Consolidate debt with a personal loan

There may be times that using a personal loan to consolidate your debt is a viable option. The idea is that you take out a personal loan to cover the cost of several debt payments (say a few credit cards and a medical bill). All your bills are now one payment (ideally at a lower interest rate). This method can work if you have a strict budget and you don’t charge up your paid off lines of credit again. Companies like Zippy Loan may be able to offer help, even if you have a low credit score. Their network of lenders offers a full range of loans for people with excellent credit as well as bad credit. You are able to apply for any amount up to $15,000 through one simple application.