When we return from vacation it is difficult to re-adjust ourselves to our daily life, this includes adjusting finances, making payments and getting back to organizing economically.
Although the ideal would be to plan the holidays so that we do not spend more than we had planned, recreation and moments of relaxation tend to make us spend more, because our consumption, when we are on vacation, is usually much more emotional than rational.
Finances do not correspond to those we had considered
Therefore, generally, when we return our finances do not correspond to those we had considered. Thus, it is very important to recover the balance of these as soon as possible so that the instability that could have been generated in our pockets does not become a permanent financial problem.
First we must make a holiday balance, that is, identify how much we exceed or how much we spend. This will help us to know how much money we no longer have, and how much we need to keep up with the expenses that are still pending from the holidays and with our monthly obligations. In addition, it will help us to know how much we should save to balance our budget.
Know what our budget and our expenses are
When we are clear on what financial point we are and know what our budget and our expenses are, we should develop a savings plan. This would include a weekly and monthly calculation of how much we can spend in those periods, how much we will save each month to stabilize and, why not, to schedule our next vacation. The plan will help us know when we cannot spend more and what expenses to reduce or postpone.
While balancing our finances it is useful, for example, to make an effort and save a percentage of the salary higher than we normally save. Also: pause the use of credit cards making sure that the debt will not increase, avoid temptations such as going to our favorite stores and checking if our usual expenses are still necessary.
During the process of reorganizing our finances, it is important not to stop making any payments, as we can enter a snowball dynamic in which several debts begin to accumulate. A good practice is to pay the minimum and if we can, pay a little more than we should.
Another strategy is to use the 50/50 trick
This is that every time we make an unnecessary purchase, we place the same amount of money we spend on that purchase in our savings or emergency fund. This dynamic is highly recommended when we are in the plan to rebalance our finances, because it allows us to be more responsible for what we should not spend.
Finally, let’s not forget the importance of always having an emergency fund that corresponds to three to six months of our living expenses. When we have additional expenses we usually understand the importance of the emergency fund, as it is a very good way to avoid using the budget of the following months in the post-vacation period.
If during the holidays we get money from the fund, it is time to start replenishing it and let’s not forget that the important thing is not how much we earn, but how we manage and optimize it.