For me, it's more like a day's work that can get me my jeans (please don't gag, I'm just stating facts).

You know, if I didn't have credit cards and insurance and gas and whatever little surprises life (or my car) throws at me....

I did a similar thing that the author did when I first started college. Granted, it was waaay less than 11, but I did manage to max them all out. It's only this past year and a half where I started to pay all of them off. I still have 1 left to pay off, but it's being such a bitch because payments for other stuff (not enough money for textbooks, cellphone bills higher than usual, parking permits) keep coming up; and what's worse than that is that I keep seeing different things I want to buy.

A work in progress, that's what my financial maturity is. But I'm not exactly struggling for gas money any more, so it's a step!

A solution to the author's picking on young adults buying expensive jeans?
None other than HF, duh.