By Alvin Hall Presenter of BBC Two's Your Money or Your Life

Alvin suggests five steps you can take to turn around your finances

Excessive debt is the new guilty secret of many families and individuals in Britain.

Credit cards, store cards, mortgage refinancing, and consolidation loans are like addictive drugs causing peoples' "I've got to have it" and "I deserve it" emotions to overwhelm all other rational thought - financial or otherwise.

The income that could provide you with sufficient and reasonable financial security is eventually overwhelmed by re-payments on your accumulating debts.

Even worse, your total debt begins to increase at a faster rate than your income, and at a faster rate than you can pay them off.

Thus the downward spiral begins.

If you are headed toward such a debt-crisis scenario or find yourself right in the middle of one, here are five steps you can take to turn your finances and, perhaps most importantly, yourself around.

Step 1: Take Control of the Numbers.

You may find this a difficult first step, but it is essential.

Like many people, you may have mentally compartmentalised your finances, keeping your income, spending, and debts separate from each other.

You see - or more accurately, want to see - little or no relationship between the three areas.

For each of the past six months:

• List all of the sources of income and total the amount you have earned
• Itemise each of your fixed or essential expenses (for example your mortgage or rent, utilities, telephone) and total these
• Itemise each of your discretionary expenses (for example, entertainment, takeaways, taxis, gifts) and total these

If you have excessive debts:

• List each debt showing the name of the lender (bank, store, credit card issuer), the total amount you owe, and the annual percentage interest rate (APR) you are being charged on each.

You may then be confronted with a grim reality and one you have been trying to avoid.

By writing down and reviewing how you have spent your money and how much you owe, you can begin to see in black and white where you need to make changes in formulating your own plan to get back into positive financial territory.

Step 2: Take control of yourself.

If you are not willing to admit that you have a problem, then no plan will ever work.

If you are not willing to change the behaviours that got you into this difficult financial situation, then you are doomed to repeat the same cycle over and over again.

I know these sound like statements a therapist might say to an addict, but the same type of self refection is needed to pull you out of the debt spiral.

Getting out of debt and building the financial security you desire is not just a numbers game.

You must be keenly aware of your emotional strengths and weaknesses, and know when you are becoming vulnerable to overspending in order to take yourself out of harm's way.

Step 3: Create a plan and act on it.

With the six-month record of your previous spending in front of you, make the necessary cuts to balance your budget.

Use the list of your debt to set the order in which they will be paid off.

The first that should be paid off is the one charging you the highest interest.

If you have more than one or two credit and store cards, cut them up.

If you have more than one or two credit and store cards, cut them up

This process may be painful, but it is what you will have to do in order to get yourself back in the black.

A good rule of thumb to keep in mind when establishing the new budget for your new, more financially responsible life is to try to live on only 85% of your take home pay.

This should leave you with some additional money to pay off your bills.

And once the bills are paid, you can begin to save this money.

Sticking to your plan will require discipline, but not total denial.

Plan to give yourself a treat - something that you will make you happy - when you have achieved a specific goal, like paying down you debt to a certain level.

Step 4: Reduce the interest you are paying on your debt, if you can.

If you have not totally ruined your credit rating, you might be able to lower the interest you are paying on your debts.

You might consolidate them into one, low-interest loan from your bank.

You might be able to transfer the balances to a low-interest credit card.

If you can do this, it will lower your repayments, thus giving you some additional money with which to reduce your debts more quickly.

Do not let the relief you initially feel propel you to go out start spending - that is the usual cycle that many people easily fall back into.

Step 5: Question the necessity of each of your purchases.

Before you make any purchase, ask yourself: "Do I really need this? Can I really afford it?"

I cannot overstate the importance of distinguishing between what you need and what you want.

It was probably the blurring of the difference between the two that got you into the over-spending cycle in the first place.

If you ask yourself this question often enough when shopping, it will become automatic and will help break your impulses.

Eventually - and it will take time-you can get yourself back on the road to financial security... and stay there.

Alvin Hall appeared in the programme Hey Big Spender!, broadcast on BBC One at 2100 GMT on Wednesday 28 January, 2004.

As President of Cooperhall Press, Inc. in New York, Alvin is widely respected and courted as a financial trainer, and has written a number of books including the award-winning and most recent "Your Money or Your Life", a practical guide to personal finance, published by Hodder and Stoughton.

The material is for general information only and does not constitute investment, tax, legal or other form of advice. You should not rely on this information to make (or refrain from making) any decisions. Always obtain independent, professional advice for your own particular situation.