My toddler spent $100 today, and I found out from an email that looked like Spam.

Sorry for the rebound effect taking place! It happens to everyone that gets out of major debt holes it seems.

A few things to help recovery:

  • Trust your budget. Create a budget and stick to it.. when the spending money is there, use it and trust it. https://i.imgur.com/lSoUQr2.png This image from personal finance can help you figure out if your budget is on track and working for y'all. As long as there's an emergency fund, adequate contributions to investments and retirements, and the bills are paid, there is NO harm in it.

  • Know where your luxuries are and indulge in them--when you Earn them. You worked your tushies off to pay off debts--you EARNED that with hard work. Make your luxuries the same way.. don't see them as pure indulgences, earn them. Make room for them. For me, I spend very little and save that monthly money to earn my travels, but everyone is different. Everyone has their little luxuries. If a coffee at starbucks is heaven-in-a-cup to you, screw what everyone and anyone says about MYO coffee... get you a cup every so often. Earn it, but get it actually afterwards. If earning it means staying in your grocery budget, so be it. If vacation means when you max out your IRA, make it so.

  • Realize travel does NOT have to be pricey. I travel around 7 times a year.. twice outside the country, and several (mostly new) cities and states in the US between it all. I don't make tons of money, I just travel very cheaply. Hostels, couchsurfing, airbnb or cheap hotels, scott's cheap flights for international travel, and going to cheaper destinations in general where my money stretches. Going to europe puts a dent in the pocketbook, so I don't go there as often, but Asia, South America, and Africa are generally cheap continents to visit. We went to Mexico for 2 weeks last year and spent $1000 for 2 people on the entire thing start to finish. It was amazingly cheap to hang out there for a long time, and many of the cool things there are free or really cheap to see and do.

/r/Frugal Thread