Kim Fusaro, Little Miss Fortune, Glamour

I haven’t seen Confessions of a Shopaholic yet, but I remember reading the book a few years ago—and that it hit a little too close to home: Damsel in (financial) distress Rebecca Bloomwood starts the story in a face-off with her credit card bill and its shockingly high balance. Suffice to say, I’m familiar with that scenario. The scenes with threatening calls and overdue notices from credit card companies? Yeah, those also rang a bell. I’ve never been a big-ticket spender—my flashiest car was a Honda Civic—but 14 years of frequent little credit card purchases (a dinner out here, a round of drinks there … oh, hello, cute dress!) have certainly added up. Add to those some college loans, a few emergency veterinary bills, and a wedding, and I’m pretty far in the hole. So far in the hole I’m not exactly sure how much I owe, at this point. But I know it's a lot. I’ll document the steps (and missteps, I’m sure) of my journey here. I’ll share the tips I get from money gurus and tight-fisted friends—and hopefully advice I get from you. I’m not going to become a miser—a girl’s gotta have fun, after all—instead I plan on figuring out how to live the life I love on less.