Financial recovery is one of the hardest situations that you ever have to face. One reason for this is because the deed has already been done. You are already past the point of no return. You have made that purchase, swiped your card or used your debit card to pay for a specific expense. Around these times, there is a good chance that your last mistake was overspending on Valentine’s Day.
Recovery is hard but not impossible meaning it can be done. If you are already married and you really made a big financial mistake with your spending, do not lose hope. There are people who are able to stay in love despite debt problems.
You might have booked an expensive holiday for you and your loved one to spend Valentine’s Day. It might even be that diamond ring she has been eyeing. It is also possible that you ordered those sneakers that he has been drooling over for the past week. All these comes at a cost and if you did not really prepare for it, you are now looking at steps to financial recovery.
Creditcars.com shares that an average household has a credit card debt of about $9,600 and this can significantly be higher if you did not prepare for your Valentine’s day costs. Here are a few ideas on how to pick your finances back up after spending too much during Valentine’s season.
Check your credit card purchases
NRF.com shares that for this year, consumers are spending averaging lower expenses for Valentine’s Day than last year. From $146.84, people are now averaging about $136.57 spending for the special occasion. A lot lower but still a big expense. One way to determine this and your first step to financial recovery is to look at your credit card purchases.
It is important to separate the usual expenses you have with the ones you took out just for this month. You need to segregate ordinary food expense from the ones you so you have an idea on how much you were over-budget. This can even help you by giving you an idea how much you need to save for next year’s celebration.
Look at your payment capability
The next thing you need to do after determining your expenses is to look at your income. The basic idea is to ensure that you have enough funds to cover your additional expense for Valentine’s day. Your income must be greater that your expenses. This will allow you to make full payments on your card every month.
If a full payment is not possible, the least you can do is to look for a way to pay more than just the bare minimum. This is because minimum payment slowly kills your finances. The interest payment that you lose over time might not be that big every month. However, if you total that over a span of 12 months, you might be surprised with the amount.
If your finances become tight, what you can do is to move some expenses around to make some elbow room for your card payment. You ‘might find that saving on food by limiting your take-outs could help you save money for card payments.
Paying down debt is a step to financial recovery
The prospect of financial recovery after a big expense might frighten a lot of people even before they start with it. This is similar to paying down debt and looking for a repayment program that can help you manage your obligations. One of these repayment programs is debt consolidation which is very popular with consumers managing debt payment.s
When you consolidate your debts, you get to enjoy stress-free payment. This is because the program helps you streamline your payments combining multiple transactions into one. As you put most, if not all your debt payments under one account, you combine multiple obligations under one roof. Now, you get to focus on fewer details such as payment amount, due date, and even interest rate.
You need to remember though that using debt consolidation for financial recovery after Valentine’s Day is not for everyone. For one, you need to have the ability to meet your payment. The problem lies not with meeting the payment but scheduling the payment. Debt consolidation might also help you lower down your payment. This is possible if you get approved for a lower interest rate mainly due to a higher credit score.
With all these, how do you move forward and make sure that you do not repeat the same mistakes? Here are a few things to keep in mind.
Learn from the experience
One takeaway you need to discern from this situation is learning to plan ahead and be proactive with your expenses. Now that you have found the need to look into financial recovery for your expenses, you need to be smarter the next time around. Plan for the expense for next year as early as now. You can also use this learning opportunity to do the same with other recurring expenses. It can be for a birthday celebration, wedding anniversary or even for the holidays.
Save early
If you checked your credit card statement and other receipts, you would have an idea how much you spent this Valentine’s Day. It is important for you to have an idea how much that total amount is so you can save up for it the next time around. If you want to up it next year from roses to a weekend getaway, you can check prices now to see how much it is.
With these prices, you can start to save up for a goal. If you start early, you can break the amount into 12 small saving goals. This would be just in time for Valentine’s Day for next year. If there are changes in the prices or even your plans, you at least have some funds saved up. An increase means you only need to add a few more rather than looking for the whole amount in one go.
Know that it is not always about the price tag
If you solely base the value of your gift with the amount you paid for it then there is something wrong. There are other things you can give your significant other that would not cost you an arm and a leg but still make them feel loved. The idea is the effort you put into the gift that would help make them feel loved.
You can use your hobbies to put a special gift for them. It can be a cake that they like so much or even taking candid photos and putting them in a frame to hang on your wall. If you are handy around the house and can build just about anything, why not build something for your loved one? If she loves to read then why not build a reading nook in a nice corner of the house? Put a lot of shelves so she can put all her books in.
There are ways to get out of it and get your finances back in order. You also need to make sure that you put a system in place to prevent the same thing from happening again in the future.