Bouncing Back After Overspending

At Penny Forward, we host a Wednesday Workshop every week to explore personal finance topics in detail. Most sessions are interactive, giving our students the chance to ask questions and apply what they’ve learned to their own lives.

Last week’s discussion focused on how to recover after slipping from your spending plan—whether it’s because of a summer vacation, a convention trip, or simply life getting in the way. These tips can help you get back on track whenever you’ve spent more than planned:

• Assess the damage—and be kind to yourself. Everyone slips sometimes. What matters most is learning from the experience and preparing for the future. That’s why having a savings cushion is so important—it gives you room to recover.
• If you used cash and can’t cover bills, draw from your savings until payday. As a last resort, use a credit card, but pay it off quickly to minimize interest.
• If you overspent on one credit card, pay off the full balance as soon as possible. If that’s not realistic, make the largest payments you can early and often. Paying only the minimum balance will cost you years of payments and a lot in interest.
• If you used multiple credit cards, create a repayment plan:
  • Debt snowball: Pay off the smallest balance first, then move to the next. It’s motivating, though not the cheapest.
  • Debt avalanche: Pay off the highest-interest card first to save the most money over time.
  • Debt tornado: Throw as much money as you can at all cards at once—by working extra hours, selling things, or finding other income streams—for the fastest results.

You can explore these strategies in more detail with our Digging Out of Debt course.

Finally, don’t forget to plan for the future. Start setting aside money now for your next vacation, convention, or unexpected expense. After working hard to pay off debt, you’ll feel less stressed knowing you’re ready for whatever comes next.

📻 You can listen to the full workshop here: Facing the Post-Summer Money Hangover

👉 And be sure to join us for our next Wednesday Workshop: Labor Day sales are everywhere—but are they really a bargain? We’ll show you how to separate good deals from marketing gimmicks, shop with intention, and protect your wallet.