You are not alone if you are suffering from financial stress after the holiday season. It is not unusual to have burnt your wallet out during the vacation. However, things become complicated when you find yourself in a situation that seems to beyond your control.
There is always a wiggle room for adjusting your expenses to cover the losses out of overspending, but this is not possible if you have spent a lot of money over your budget. You often get carried away during the vacation in that you want to have just fun leaving all your worries behind.
Well, when you find that you have shattered your budget, understand that you are not alone. Most of the people start panicking as they come to know their real financial situation. It is a lot easier to spend money than bounce back.
Even if you try hard to stick to your holiday budget, you often end up overspending. Here is how to get back on financial track after the holiday season:
Look over your budget.
Even though you had a budget, you cannot use that anymore. It is because you have overspent some money on your vacation, and now you are to recover that loss anyhow. Take a paper and pen and sit down to find out the areas you can cut back on.
Further restrictions are essential to impose on your expenses if you want to bounce back. You do not need to create an unrealistic budget. You can introduce a much change to your essential expenses, for instance, food, travel and debt payments.
However, you can bring your food expenses a bit down if you buy groceries from thrift stores. To bounce back, you should rigorously cut back on your inessential expenses like eating out, night entertainment, and the like. You have to stop it completely to achieve your goal. It is always a good idea to prefer to follow a lean budget until your financial situation improves.
It would help if you looked at the previous bank statement of a couple of months to get an idea of how much money you have spent on it. Set a new amount that would be enough for you. Of course, it will be lower than the previous months’ amount. Will transfer the money you save on your expenses to your savings account. This way, your savings amount will continue to go up.
Tackle new debt smartly.
This is the trickiest part to handle when it comes to taking control of your finances. When your heart sinks while seeing newly accumulated debt, you should remind yourself of the last time when you took on debt and smartly managed to pay it off.
You all know that last year was very harsh and many of you had already outstanding dues, and you took out provident loans to tide over. The same way you have to deal with the accumulated debt this time. Make a list of all of your debts.
First, note down the outstanding dues and then those that you borrowed to fund your vacation. This will help you know the total amount of money to be paid. Then, calculate how much you are left with after meeting all of your regular expenses.
If you can manage to keep up with all payments, it is good. However, if it is still difficult, you should make a repayment plan. A rule of thumb says that you should pay off high-interest debt first. Talk to your lender if they can allow you for making minimum payments.
Note that you will still end up paying interest on the outstanding balance. The other way is to take out debt consolidation loans. It is a great way to pay off the entire debt at once, and then you will have left with only one large loan to tackle payments. It may take some time, but the right strategy can help you get rid of the debt. Make sure that you stick to your plan and do not give up.
Keep saving money
You cannot stop setting aside money. Unexpected expenses can pop up anytime, and this is why you should try your best to save money. One of the best ways to have money flowing to your savings account is to enable auto-debit.
You cannot fix a random percentage because you need money to pay off additional debt too. Look over your budget and find out how much you can save by living off a lean budget. Of course, this time, you may not be able to stash away a large chunk of money, but remember that even a little amount is worth a lot if you can get benefit from it in your hour of need.
Be positive
It can take a bit long time to bounce back when you have overspent. Most of the people become frustrated and give up in the middle.
Sometimes your plan may work, and sometimes it cannot. You will have to understand the fact that everything cannot be as you have planned.
You will have to stay positive and patient to reach your goal. This journey is not going to be that easy. Focus on your progress to motivate yourself when your heart sinks.
The bottom line
Having overspent money can take a toll on your finances, but you are not alone. You need to immediately go through your budget to find out the areas where you can cut back on.
The money you save on your expenses can be transferred to your savings. It is essential to put aside a rainy day if you do not want to take out Provident loans in Ireland for regular expenses.