The finances part of my life is one of the areas of my life that has made significant progress over the last year. To give you an idea, at its highest point, I had close to $14,000 worth in credit card debt back in June 2008. As of today, Dec 31, 2008, I’ve brought it down to just a little under $5000. I’ve devised and implemented a good amount of different strategies to minimize spending maximize my utility in whatever I consume. Further I’ve made the conscious effort to record all my expenses with the help of a few tools.
While I’ve made lavish purchases like my iPhone and enrolling in improv classes, I had made exceptions to these as I justified them in increasing the quality of my life.
I was fortunate enough to use a large enough ‘debt-destroying snowball’ and that forward momentum by first cashing out my Employee Share Ownership Plan back in late July 2008, before the markets had crashed.
Some of the micro-distinctions I made this year was when I realized that I spent the most money each time my paycheck was deposited into my bank account. I cut out all possibility of spending by throwing at least 80% of my paycheck each time I got paid, which eventually turned into a habit.
Besides those purchases, I had tracked every penny spent with my trusty PocketMod, Spend Lite App on my iPhone and most importantly using Microsoft Money to do week-to-week and month-to-month.
As I’ve got only $5000 to go, I project that I’ll destroy the remainder of my debt by April 2009 latest when my income tax refund rolls around 
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