It’s one of the oldest anxiety-inducing experiences in the book. Periods of intense overspending are usually followed by shock, regret, guilt, and panic about whether you really could and should have gone so far.

Whether it was a pricey vacation you booked during a particularly stressful day at work, dinner out one too many nights, or an online shopping spree on Amazon that got a bit out of hand.

There’s usually always a reasonable motivating force as to why it happened. We all try to embody the noble and adult goal of being responsible with our money, but sometimes, you need therapy and escape. However, consequences usually ensue. Keep reading below to learn how to recover from a few of these.

HOW TO EMOTIONALLY AND FINANCIALLY RECOVER FROM AN OVERSPENDING SPREE

Pause and detach for 24 hours.

It’s important to not wholly demolish your psychological state with extreme negative self-talk or consider everything you purchased a mistake. You’re most likely an adult with a steady source of income, or you wouldn’t have had the spending expedition in the first place. (If you did so whilst unemployed, I am happy to cover that in a separate post…)

Just wait a day, relax, assess what you bought, and go from there. It’s likely that things like household items, food, and seasonal shopping—such as Christmas presents—don’t call for much regret as they have more meaning and use behind them.

Make returns.

Step 2 would be to look into damage control immediately.

Evaluate clothing purchases that were impulse buys rather than because of true versatility and quality. Speaking from personal experience, I’ve bought flamboyant, extreme pieces because they looked good online or better on someone else, but in reality, it’s vital to develop the habit of knowing your style preferences and tendencies so that you can avoid similar mistakes in the future. i.e., how much use will you get from it? Can you wear it to more than one event or activity?

If you kept the receipts, make the returns. It can work wonders for regaining your sense of personal control (because, let’s be honest, a large part of the massive spending was motivated by wanting to let loose and go crazy anyway).

Larger purchases are trickier, such as vacations and expensive weekends out with friends. Unless you booked all refundable flights and hotels, once the money spent on those is gone, it’s typically gone forever, and you must follow through with the commitment.

You may have to suffer the temporary pain of loss with these types of spending sprees, but a soothing perspective in these stressful moments is that good times with good people and self-care (in balance) are not to be undermined. It will have to be one of those things that you have to monitor with more discretion in the future.

Figure out the maximum use/benefit of whatever you spend money on.

If it’s an indulgent vacation, make the absolute most of it. Go everywhere, do everything, spend no time at your hotel, and meet everyone. If it’s an expensive gadget, use it all the time. If you can’t, gift it or sell it to someone who will. Giving away things you’ve bought but can’t get the most use out of yourself or give back is an excellent opportunity to pass them on to someone you care about who will. It’s gratifying and therapeutic.

Decide what your future sacrifices are going to be and write it down.

This one takes some time and effort, but if the spending was really painful, it’s best to plan a strategy for making up the loss immediately. Not only will this exercise calm you down, but it will also improve your budgeting skills and give you clear insight into your larger spending habits.

Get to the root of your overspending tendencies.

Finally, if the credit card balance is truly hurting you over the long term and seems to be a recurring theme, it may be good to spend some time delving into why you consciously or unconsciously feel like this tendency is helping rather than hurting you.

It’s one thing to value quality, luxury, escape, and creative interests in moderation—and these things cost money. But if you find yourself unable to keep up and constantly facing regret and financial repercussions, some tools to improvement may be in order. The Psychology of Money is a book that helped me gain some perspective into WHY I manage money the way I do. I’ve also written a post about how not to Impulse Buy, which may be of interest to you.

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Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope what you have read has somehow educated, informed, or inspired you.

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