We’ve all been there – too many bills to pay and not enough time. It feels as sudden as running into a brick wall. Unfortunately, the longer you take to pay back your bills, the more that will accumulate – and the deeper of a debt hole you’ll fall into.

With careful planning, you can quickly catch up on all of your bills so that you’re financially stable again and can prevent it from happening in the future. This is exactly how to catch up when you’re falling behind on your bills.

Make a list of all of the bills you owe

The first thing to do is to get organized. Write down exactly who you owe money too and how much you owe. You can also write down any minimum monthly payments you can make so that you can start to pay them back slowly. This step might take a while if you have a lot of bills to pay – but it’s a detrimental aspect to paying back all of your bills.

Prioritize your bills

Start with the most important bills first – your car and mortgage payment, or your rent and utility bills. Then, prioritize your bills based on the interest rate or how late the payments are. Payment for basic survival needs like water and electricity should come before your credit card bills.

Cut your expenses

It might be necessary to stop some of your monthly expenses for the time being like Netflix, Spotify, Hulu or whichever other subscriptions you have. If you notice that you’re not getting enough out of them to pay the monthly fees, then you might want to consider stopping them – at least until all of your other major bills are paid. It’s important to pay back your bigger bills so that you can enjoy entertainment without having to worry about how you’re going to pay for it!

Create a budget plan

Once your superfluities expenses are out of the way and you see how much money you owe, you can start to create a budget plan. Stick to a budget plan that’s reasonable, but one that will also help you pay back your bills on time.

Increase your salary

In order to pay your bills back, you might need to pick up a side hustle or change the circumstances of your current job. You could ask for a raise or work overtime.

You could also get a second job. This doesn’t have to be one that requires long hours, but one that makes a difference in your bill payments. Aim for part time jobs waitressing or bartending. The tips you make waitressing and bartending might be enough to pay back your bills quickly.

Take out a home-equity loan

This is a surefire way to get you back on track to paying back your bills. Even though it’s risky, it might be necessary given your potential circumstances.

A home-equity loan is more or less a second mortgage. Calculate how much money you need to borrow, and then take that out as a loan in one lump sum, which you’ll pay back each month. The downside of the home equity loan is that you use your house as a financing safety net in case you can’t make payments on time. The loaner can technically take your home if you can’t make payments. On the other hand, one of the best perks about a home-equity loan is being able to take out a certain amount for up to 10 years. Make sure you take out your home-equity loan at a lower interest rate, so that you can pay off your other loans with smaller interest costs.

Set up a plan

Try to set up payment plans with those you owe money to. Let them know that you’re behind on your payments. They might be able to set up a payment plan with you where you can pay a fixed amount every week or month until the bill is paid in full.

Even though it might take some time, you will eventually have all of your bills paid back! With perseverance and patience, you might be able to pay them back sooner than expected. Once you create a budget, prioritize your bills, and increase your salary, you’ll be on the correct path – and may even prevent the same thing from happening twice.