$1,000 down...

Yesterday I slashed $1,000 off my credit card debt, thanks mostly to the Way2Save count I set up about a year ago with Wachovia.

It sounded sort of gimmicky at first -- everytime you swipe your card we'll give you $1 in a separate savings account -- but, holy cow, those swipes can really add up...especially when you never carry cash, like me.

So 1,000 soy chai lattes, cobb salads, skinny jeans, Red Stripes and electricity bills later, I'm a grand closer to being credit-card debt free! (I don't say debt free because the mortgage on my home won't be paid off 'til I'm like 70, so...)

I would tell you how much I have left to $0, but I don't attend the school of full disclosure. I delve pretty deep into my closet of skeletons from time to time, but that's asking too much. I will tell you, it's not a crazy amount. But it's nothing to sneeze at, either.

Another thing I'll tell you is how that cloud of credit card debt hanging over my head came to be: It all started my sophomore year in college, when I HAD to have that dress from Bebe. Looking back, I realize I made two huge mistakes: I should have never opened that credit card account, and I should have NEVER been shopping at Bebe. Seriously, I spent that year broke looking like a skanky pinata.

Then I bought a house. No credit card debt came from the actual purchase of the house, but decorating the house to look like a shoot from the late Domino magazine (RIP) is another story.

Then I went through this phase of only eating special crunch rolls and drinking champagne cocktails with my friend Bridget, and that certainly didnt' help.

Then I got laid off.

Then I moved to DC, which is a way more expensive city than Charleston, especially when you're trying to make new friends. (Read: Constantly contributing to the greater-DC food and bev industry.)

And now I'm here, with a job that pays well and much more self control, and I'm finally able to start chipping away at (or, like I did this week, whacking big chunks out of) my credit card debt.