How to Recover After a Month of Overspending

After a few weeks hiatus and a social detox to be in the moment, we are back with another post in the Money Monday series! This week’s topic is one that all of us have dealt with at some point in our lives…and some more than others. Sometimes emergency situations come up, our social calendar is more full than normal, or we just unintentionally go over budget for the month.

Thankfully there are a few key steps that can easily get you back on track. With these 4 simple steps, your monthly budget will be back in line in no time! Keep scrolling to see how to recover after a month of overspending.

STOP THE SELF SHAME AND OVERTHINKING

First and foremost, it is important to stop overthinking the situation. Trust me, I know that is easier said than done from personal experience but overthinking does the situation no good. The money has already been spent and unless you are able to return things from your overspending spree, it’s time to stop dwelling in the past and start looking forward to a self repayment plan.

We are all guilty of overspending at some point in our lifetime. Overspending can come from unexpected emergencies, a more than full social calendar, retail therapy, a bunch of small purchases adding up to more than expected, hitting the ATM a few too many times, splurging on vacation, etc etc; the list goes on and on.

The self shame part starts now. It is time to acknowledge and take ownership of the overspending, and remind yourself that you are more than capable of taking care of the situation. Your financial steps moving forward to fix the spending mishap are fully in your control.

ASSESS THE DAMAGE

Once you’ve come to terms with the overspending, it’s now time to assess the damage from it. Usually you’ll have this gut feeling that you spent too much and absolutely dread looking at your bank account online. Sound familliar?!

Open up a spreadsheet or grab a notebook and pen and start jotting down all of your expenses for the month. This allows you to see firsthand exactly how much you overspent. Once you add everything up, you may realize the overspending was not as bad as you thought. On the other hand, it could be way more than you expected and you now need a solid, structured plan in place to fix it.

It’s important to be completely real and honest with yourself here. You don’t want to push things to the side or dig yourself into a deeper hole. The quick and more honest you are with yourself, the better your plan to fix the spending mistake will be.

DEFINE WHERE THINGS WENT SOUTH

Now that you’ve put everything into a spreadsheet or down on paper, look for any red flags or recurring expenses that may be the cause of your overspending. Really dive deep to get to the root of the problem so that you can avoid making the same mistake again in the future.

Certainly there can be things that cause us to overspend that we just can plan for routinely, like your car breaking down or a medical emergency. On the other hand, something like continually going to Target without a list and getting sucked into the Target effect is not a realistic excuse. Maybe you are even living a lifestyle that is completely outside of your actual financial situation. You know, that champagne taste on a beer budget. Or maybe work got hectic and you treated yourself to a few too many lattes to keep you caffeinated and alert.

Just as we did with assessing the damage, it’s important to be completely honest with yourself here and really define that problem - or problems - that cause the overspending. This is key to taking control of your finances and financial well-being.

MAKE A SHORT-TERM PLAN

So you’ve assessed the damage and gotten to the root of the overspending, now it’s time to make a short-term plan. The basics of this would be to cut your spending for X-amount of time need to cover the spending mistake, or increase your income for that period of time. As always, it’s important to figure out which strategy works best for you.

Maybe it’s something as simple as creating a list anytime you go shopping or to get groceries to avoid impulses purchases or that good ol’ Target effect. Perhaps it’s cutting that coffee shop latte for a couple of months on Friday’s. If you’re social calendar is to blame for the overspending, try swapping dinner and drinks out every weekend to relaxing nights in or finding inexpensive things to do like going for a hike. If your overspending was just a tad astronomical, it might be time to try a no-spend month [ie: only spend on necessities like rent, bills, etc]

There you have it, 4 steps to recover after a month of overspending. Do you have any tips to recover after a spending mistake? If so, share below in the comments!