I was thinking a quick way to run up credit card debt would be buying a house.
First, we'll assume you're an average American and are buying a house that's way too big; 2500+ square feet. We're not including the mortgage here though.
But what we do need is to fill this house up. We've probably got 4 or 5 bedrooms, 2+ bathrooms, and a gigantic kitchen. Oh, don't forget that we might have a living room, den, "man cave," and garage.
So let's buy a few beds, maybe a desk for a spare bedroom "office," nightstands for every bed, dressers, kitchen gadgets (highest end Kitchenaid mixer, one of those $300+ blenders, fancy coffee maker/bean grinder/etc, toasters, knives, matching dish sets, matching dish towels...this list goes on forever really), garage storage, dining sets (possibly two if there's an eat in kitchen; bar stools?), and we're going to need TV's for every single room. Couches and tables for those two living spaces are a must, as well as likely some entertainment centers. Heck, throw in a receiver and speakers because we're sure as hell going to need 7 channel surround sound. Oh, and because HGTV said so, we've definitely got a massive walk in closet. We'll need to fill that up with clothes.
We've also probably got a massive yard, and a zero turn mower would make quick work of those (a push mower would take way too long, and god forbid you used a reel mower; side note, we use a reel mower and my wife doesn't like to use it for the front yard because she thinks our neighbors are judging us). A weed eater, hedge trimmer and chainsaw are probably going to be new purchases as well, because you never know. And really, we're amassing lots of tools here, so we probably should go ahead and buy a table saw, miter saw, circular saw, drill, router, a wrench set, clamps, sander, etc (I'm not saying it's bad to own these, by the way) that we can throw in the garage "shop" (read: corner).
You can see where I'm going with this. And who's got cash for all of this clutter for your house? Congratulations, you've amassed 5 figures of credit card debt.