I took out a Visa card from my bank for little more reason than the vague notion that it was part of being an adult, useful for emergencies and to establish a credit rating. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I also had a store card with both Grace Bros (now Myer) and David Jones. I really don’t know why.

It didn’t take long for me to realise I’d made a bad move. The problem was I was earning $18,000 a year – this was the late 1990s so that’s less than $30,000 in today’s money. (Getting a start in journalism has never been lucrative.)

My take-home pay after tax was about $290 a week. Rent for my room in my shabby shared house was $100 a week, excluding bills and food. I didn’t own a car, so I walked most places and took public transport.

I’m not a spendthrift by nature, but I am spontaneous and not naturally inclined to strict budgets and plans. With such a low income, it didn’t take much indulgence for me to spend beyond my means.

Within six months I had more than $2000 in debt and was paying hefty interest charges every month. It was stressful and I could see something needed to change.

So I cut up the cards and reined in my expenses. First I cleared the store cards, which had the lowest balances but the highest rates of interest. Then I set to work on the Visa debt.

I walked to work instead of catching the bus, I took my lunch with me, I shopped my wardrobe, I avoided rounds at the pub and drank at my own pace. I didn't literally eat baked beans, but I didn't eat much meat for a few months.

I took out a classified ad in the local paper (in print, how quaint!) to advertise my services as a tutor. I only found one client but that was an extra $30 a week for a few months. I also babysat for friends of my family, something I’d done back in high school.

Every week on pay day, I socked $100 – more than third of my net income – into my credit card. I was excited to see the balance going down and I managed to pay it all off within about six months. The feeling of liberation when I closed the final card was incredible.

Everyone’s situation in life is a little different, but many of the debt-busting techniques I stumbled upon back then still apply now.

I wrote recently about why it’s foolish to keep money in savings if you’re not paying your credit card bill in full every month. Focus on your net position and make it your mission to get the debt monkey off your back as quickly as you can.

Some people might suggest consolidating debt into one loan with lower interest, but beware.

A balance transfer deal to a credit card with an interest-free period can work, but only if you have a firm plan to pay it off before interest charges revert to the usual rate. You also need to avoid making purchases on the card – which incur high interest – or taking out another card and creating the same problem all over again.

Apparently men are much more likely to pay off their balance transfer debt than women – four out of five men pay it off in time, compared with three out of five women, according to a survey of more than 1000 people commissioned by online marketplace lender SocietyOne.

Another option is to take out a personal loan from a bank or one of the new breed of online marketplace lenders, also called peer-to-peer (P2P) lenders. This has the advantage of locking you in to a fixed repayment schedule, and removes the temptation of using it for new purchases. To minimise interest charges, look for a loan with a fairly short duration and the option to make extra repayments.

If you have a home loan, don’t be fooled into rolling your debt into your mortgage. While the rate would be lower, if you’re paying it off over 25 to 30 years instead of two to five years, you’ll actually pay a lot more in total.

Or you can do what I did and cut up the cards and pay each one at a time, starting with the debt with the highest interest rate. It can keep you focused.

Shake out some extra income and funnel it all into your debt. The internet makes this so much easier than it was back in the late 1990s. You could be a tutor or a babysitter like me, or take on freelance work or drive Uber. Sell surplus items around your home – hold a garage sale, or sell things one by one on eBay or Gumtree. (And if you're a parent, get your kids involved.) If you get a tax return, pay it straight into the debt.

You’ll need to curb your spending to ensure you keep chipping away at the debt and ultimately to learn to live within your means. If you find that hard, here are some mental tricks.

First, treat it like a game and take it month by month. Live frugally for a few months and pump as much as you can into the credit card debt, then take a month off where you just make the minimum payment. Treat yourself to something nice with the excess funds – from cash flow, not credit. Then go hard again. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Second, here’s one for those who find the adult colouring trend alluring. Print out an enlargement of a colouring-in design and display it somewhere prominent on your wall. Let yourself colour in one segment for every $100 you pay off your debt. Most people would find the unfinished artwork a mental irritation, providing extra motivation to pay off the debt.

A year or so after busting my credit card debt, I let myself get an American Express card, but it was a charge card rather than a credit card – that is, I had to pay the full balance every month. Once bitten, twice shy.

Once banks started offering Visa Debit and Mastercard Debit cards, I didn’t even need that any more. I went for years without credit cards.

I have them now for the rewards programs, but only because I’m now in a financial position to clear the debt in full every month. I've banished credit card interest from my life for good – and you can too.

Caitlin Fitzsimmons is the Money editor. Read all her columns or find her on Facebook or Twitter.