Charis Marr, Co-Creator of In Good Wealth, shares five practical ways to move past post-holiday spending guilt, regain sight of your finances and build a realistic plan that still leaves room to enjoy life.
Summer has a way of changing our normal spending habits.
School breaks, long-awaited holidays and more time with family can mean loosening the purse strings. A meal here, an activity there, a few holiday extras; individually, they may not feel significant. But by the time normal routines return, the total can be considerably higher than expected.
Then comes what I call the post-summer syndrome: opening your accounts, looking at the numbers and wondering, How did we spend that much?
The temptation can be to overcorrect. No shopping. No takeaways. A strict budget that suddenly makes everyday life feel like punishment.
But financial wellbeing is not about punishing yourself for enjoying your summer. Nor is it about pretending the spending never happened. It is about understanding where you are, learning from what happened and making your next financial decisions with greater intention.
Here are five practical ways to reset.
1. Work Out What You Actually Spent
Start with the number.
You do not need to account for every last dirham, but you do need an honest picture of what the holiday cost. Once you know that, you can stop guessing and start deciding what “back on track” actually means for you.
Everyone’s answer will be different because income and financial surplus vary. The important thing is having enough visibility to make intentional rather than reactive decisions.
2. Find Where the Money Came From
Next, ask a simple question: how did you fund the summer?
If it came from savings, you may want to focus on rebuilding them. If credit cards covered part of the holiday, repaying higher-interest debt may need to come first.
Look at which accounts took the biggest hit and prioritise accordingly.
3. Build Your Way Back, Gradually
A financial reset does not have to mean cutting everything enjoyable from your life.
If your monthly income does not currently leave much breathing room, identify one or two areas where you can temporarily reduce spending. Small adjustments that last are generally more useful than dramatic restrictions abandoned after a week.
If you do have surplus income, consider directing it towards the debt charging the most interest first. Once that falls, the same money can be redirected towards savings or rebuilding your financial buffer.
4. Don’t Let One Slip Become the Plan
No financial plan works perfectly every week.
You might overspend one weekend or move away from the plan you created. That does not erase the progress already made.
Instead of treating a slip as failure, recalculate where you stand and continue. Sustainable financial habits leave room for real life.
5. Make the Next Holiday Part of the Plan
Once you have regained control, look forward.
If travel matters to you, begin building future holidays into your financial goals rather than treating them as unexpected expenses. That might mean creating dedicated savings while continuing to work towards your other priorities.
Ultimately, financial wellbeing is not about spending as little as possible.
It is about using money intentionally to support the life you want, today and in the future. You should be able to spend on things you enjoy while knowing where that money is coming from and what it means for the rest of your financial picture.
Summer happened. You enjoyed it. The goal now is not to feel guilty about it, but to take what you learned and make your next financial decisions with greater clarity.
By Charis Marr, Co-Creator, In Good Wealth
Source: Contributed article by Charis Marr, Co-Creator, In Good Wealth.
