DeShena Woodard is happy.

Shes working full time in her dream job as an RN, running her own financial blog and living in a suburb outside of Houston.

From the outside looking in, youd never guess this got-it-all-together professional was recently struggling.

Just a few years ago, Woodard was anxious. Every dollar she made at her part-time job was earmarked for a bill to pay someone else. She had nothing in savings and was growing weary of living paycheck to paycheck.

In this series, NerdWallet interviews people who have triumphed over debt. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Woodard was spending more than she earned, something she refers to as living extravagantly broke. (Appropriately, Extravagantly Broke is now the name of her blog.)

Thats when things changed. With her children getting older and her own education complete, Woodard was in a position to begin working full time. She upped her salary to approximately $75,000 in 2017 (a sizable increase from about $50,000 in 2016) and undertook a financial journey.

While her husband paid down household debt, Woodard worked on paying her own. She shifted her focus from habits like buying new clothes and overspending on Christmas to holding on to things longer instead of replacing them. She bought only what she needed and rarely what she wanted. Her lifestyle went from extravagant to frugal.

And it worked.

Between January 2017 and August 2019, Woodard paid off $51,754 in debt a combination of credit cards, auto loans and a personal loan.

She paid off a Nissan auto loan, hefty credit card charges for her schooling that had been building up and expenses for her daughter.

Nowadays, shes living comfortably and is still getting used to small victories like seeing money building in her bank account. The best part? Woodard says shes doing better emotionally.

I feel much happier not having any debt and driving a Nissan than I would having a lot of debt driving a Mercedes.

Heres how she paid off debt and what she learned along the way, in her own words.

What triggered your decision to start getting out of debt?

I was not happy with the current state of my finances. I was stressed and anxious about money all the time. I knew that what I was doing wasnt working and decided to make a change. I changed my attitude toward money and that is what led to a change in my spending behavior. I made the choice to live a comfortable life instead of an extravagantly broke one.

How did you prioritize your debts?

I was paying all of them at the same time, but I was paying more on some than others. For one credit card, I was paying $500 a month and the other one $300. On my car, I was paying double. But once I got both credit cards paid off, then I was able to pay triple on my car.

For me, I needed to see that they were all moving in the right direction. Thats just what worked better for me. For some people, it may be better to just pay one thing off at a time if thats what you can do.

How has your life changed for the better since you got out of debt?

My life has definitely changed for the better since being out of debt. For one thing, I can sleep better at night. Im not always worried about being able to pay my bills. I am now at the point where I forget when payday is. And I often go for more than a week before even checking my bank account to make sure that I did get paid.

How do you remain debt-free today?

I have become much more money savvy and I dont make spur-of-the-moment purchases. Every spending decision has to be well thought out. I stick to using cash or debit. And I budget for everything.

What made you start your blog?

I know there are people out there like me. For me, it took a mindset shift. Until we can change our thinking, its hard to change our behavior. In my writing, I focus a lot on mindset, trying to dive a little deeper. I can just give you tips, but until something changes mentally, it all just washes over people.

It really takes this sort of self-discovery. You really need to think deep and figure out what is the reason that you need that? Why do you need this car versus that car? Or do you really need another car? Whats wrong with the car you have? Would it be more affordable to fix that up or put a little money into it versus pay a monthly car payment that youre going to be responsible for for the next 60 months or however many months of your life?

What is your next goal?

Im working toward becoming a certified life coach so that I can begin coaching people on their mindset and their money to help them bridge the gap and get over the hurdle of why theyre spending.

How to ditch your own debt

In addition to shifting her thinking, Woodard implemented several money-saving strategies. Used in combination, they were effective in reducing her spending and paying down her debt. Here are a few you can try, too:

There are also some universal strategies to keep debt at bay. Here are a few of NerdWallets top tips:

More From NerdWallet

Courtney Jespersen is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: courtney@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @CourtneyNerd.

The article How I Ditched Debt: From Extravagantly Broke to Comfortably Frugal originally appeared on NerdWallet.

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She ditched more than $50,000 in debt and you can too: Heres how - OregonLive.com