For many people, the holidays are far in the rearview mirror. But if you used credit cards to pay for holiday travel, celebrations and gifts, the lingering debt may still be very present. The longer it takes to pay it off, the more interest you’ll pay and the easier it will be to keep putting off. Use these strategies to pay off that lingering holiday debt quickly.

Stop Using Credit Cards

To start, you must stop incurring new debt. Stop using your credit cards — literally putting them “on ice” if you need to — as you work to pay off your balances.

Plan a Spending Freeze

Speaking of ice, a spending freeze is a great way to break the impulse buying cycle and find extra money in the budget. Whether it’s a few days, a few weeks or a month (or more) a spending freeze means you cut out all unnecessary spending and only focus on paying for essentials and bills. Learn more abut how to prepare for a spending freeze.

Eliminate or Minimize Expenses

To free up additional cash for debt payments, review your budget or online bank ledger for expenses you can eliminate or minimize. Is there a subscription you can pause or cancel? Can you spend less on food and entertainment? And why not try negotiating a lower rate for your phone, insurance and other recurring bills or switch service plans or providers to save.

Explore Gig Work

The quickest way to pay off debt is with more income. Consider gig work like food delivery with DoorDash or Postmates, or driving for Uber or Lyft. Depending on your skills, you could perform odd jobs like dog walking or errands with TaskRabbit. If you have in-damand freelance skills, look for remote work on sites like Fiverr or UpWork. Apply all your extra earnings toward your debt and you’ll see it shrink quickly.

Pause Non-essential Savings

Have you been saving for a new car, vacation or home? Consider hitting pause temporarily and redirecting those funds to your holiday debt. Just be sure to resume saving once your debt is paid off.

Use Holiday Gifts

It’s not as exciting as buying new clothes or splurging on a night out, but using cash gifts you received can help put a dent in your holiday debt. You can also use holiday gifts cards you received to pay for essentials like gas and groceries, and put the cash you save cash toward paying down your debt.

Consider a Balance Transfer

Explore a balance transfer to save on interest charges. Many card issuers offer 0% interest on balance transfers for a period between 6 and 21 months. Remember to factor in the transfer fee, which usually is a percentage of the balance being transferred. But remember — a balance transfer is only an effective solution if you stop adding new charges. If you transfer the balance(s) but continue to charge on those cards, you’ll only create more debt.

If you need help planning a budget or feel like you can’t tackle credit card debt on your own, talk with a credit counselor or take our free online financial review.