You can find extra money to dig yourself out of debt

In rough financial waters, debt-elimination schemes come out of the woodwork. Even well-educated consumers fall for them.

Unfortunately, quick fixes rarely work.

What does? My belief is that small steps can add up to big progress. This was the reasoning behind "Pay it Down: From Debt to Wealth on $10 a Day," a book I wrote six years ago. I wrote it when I realized Americans were spending far more than they were earning. That recklessness caught up with us.

So this month, I released an updated version of "Pay it Down," revamped to reflect the current times. With it, I'm launching an online program called Debt Diet Online, which you can find on my Web site, http://www.jeanchatzky.com/debtdiet.

Both will walk you through exercises designed to help you find the extra money you need to dig out of debt. You'll learn how to lower your interest rates, prioritize your spending and refinance auto and mortgage loans.

Once you've learned how to recover about $10 a day, I'll tell you where to put it so that it stretches the furthest. And when the debt is gone, I'll help you build a healthy emergency cushion so it doesn't come back.

Here are five easy ways to find your $10 a day:

• Change your withholding. Getting that tax refund every April is nice, but having that money in your pocket each month is better. If you get a big chunk of change back after filing your taxes, you're basically giving the government an interest-free loan. Talk to your human resources department at work about changing your withholding so you get a little extra in each paycheck.

• Refinance your car loan. You can refinance it just like you can refinance your mortgage. In fact, it's easier and less expensive. Most lenders require that the car be less than five years old and have a minimum loan balance of $7,500. For the best rates in your area, look on Bankrate.com.

• Consolidate your student loans. True, if your federal loan originated after July 1, 2006, your interest is fixed at 6.8 percent. But consolidating has another benefit -- it can reduce your monthly payments by allowing you to choose from a variety of repayment plans, anywhere from 10 to 20 and even 30 years. The longer the loan term, the lower your monthly payments.

• Refinance your mortgage. You should refinance and cut your monthly payment if interest rates have fallen since you took out your loan (even if only by a half or three-quarters of a point), your credit score has improved by 25 points or more, or you've paid down enough of your mortgage to turn a jumbo loan into a conforming loan.

Get rid of private mortgage insurance. You have to carry mortgage insurance if you put down less than 20 percent of the loan amount as a down payment when you bought your house. It's pricey -- anywhere from $16 to $50 a month on every $100,000 that you borrowed for your mortgage. But when the value of your home appreciates rapidly, all of that appreciation belongs to you, which may boost your ownership stake above the 20 percent mark. If that's happened, you should try to get rid of your mortgage insurance. Your lender will require an appraisal (at your expense, about $350), but if you plan to stay in the house -- and not refinance -- for more months than it would take you to recoup that $350, it makes sense to proceed.

Jean Chatzky is an editor-at-large at Money magazine and serves as AOL's official Money Coach. She is the personal finance editor for NBC's "Today" show. Her Web site is http://www.jeanchatzky.com.