How to get yourself into $30K of debt

I've received enough comments that express mild amazement and puzzlement at the magnitude of my debt that I feel it again time to explain how I got myself into this mess in the first place. My very first post does a good job of setting the scene but I can't expect all you late comers to sift through all my posts to get the full story. So here goes...take notes; it's a skill to accumulate so much debt in just a few years.

It all basically started when I was 19 years old and did a study abroad program in Paris. I had received a Platinum credit card with a limit of $5,000 not too long before my departure. At that time I was pretty responsible with my credit cards; I used them but always paid off the full balance every month. Why they decided to give a 19 year old full time student with only a part time job is beyond me...but they did.

I had loads of fun while I was abroad. Too much fun in fact. Money wasn't real to me. The ATM never told me what my balance was and I wasn't receiving any statements or bills in the mail so I was completely oblivious to how much I was spending. I went out all the time and could easily blow $50-$100 a night on dinner, drinks, and taxi fare. WTF was I thinking? I don't know. Anyways, I would aslo travel on the weekend going to other cities and spending money on hotels, souvenirs, more drinking and going out, clothes, who knows what else. My rationale was that I would only be able to do this once so I might as well live it up while I was there. Instead of using cash for all of these things I ended up using my credit card and it was all downhill from there.

By the time I came back I had amassed a couple thousand in debt. Can't remember exactly how much. Problem was was that I didn't have a job so I had to borrow money from my credit card to pay for the credit card. Smart, I know. Even smarter was that when I came back my spending habits were still out of control. More shopping, more going out, more stupidity.

I also went back to Europe to visit some friends and backpacked for about 3 weeks. I didn't have the money to do it so I just put it on the credit card.

By the time I was going to transfer to UC Berkeley I think I had about $6k in debt and I was living off of financial aid. I finally got my act together but was living off of about $17k/year paying $800 for one bedroom sharing an apartment with 4 other people, tuition, books, and a credit card payment to boot. So I didn't make much progress on paying it off. In fact, it just got worse because I had to pay for furniture, dental work, lord knows what else. I think once or twice I had to put rent on the credit card. But I was living honestly like a monk; I never went out; I never bought clothes. It was crap. By the time I graduated I was about $11k in debt.

So when I graduated I didn't have a car. I bought a car. And it wasn't cheap. I think I paid about $18,000 for my car. Please don't say anything. I eventually transferred my car loan to my credit card so I could get a lower rate and so I would only have one bill every month.

So there you have it. All my stupid mistakes laid out for all to see. But I've reformed and am determined to learn from my mistakes and try to start over with a clean slate. Initially I wanted to pay it off in 2 years from when I graduated college but instead I've revised my plan to do it in 3 years (2 years from when I started this blog).

I hope you've enjoyed this little blast to the past and don't think I'm too crazy. ;)