This post comes from Jen Smialek at our partner site Quizzle.com.
We’ve all been there before: You’ve just broken up with your significant other, and you are heartbroken. Regardless of who did the breaking, it’s never easy to muddle through the next weeks/months of confusion and emotion.
When heartbreak strikes, it can be an equally tough time to manage your finances. If you’re currently working through a breakup of your own, here are a few tips to ensure your financial house stays in-tact:
Give Yourself a Break
First of all, realize that you’re going through a tough time and allow yourself to fully process the emotions you’re feeling. Bottling things up will do you no good (and might just make things worse), so take care to afford yourself some grieving time.
During this time, it’s OK to not track your spending for a few days or to splurge on (small!) luxuries such as a few extra meals out with friends or some new running shoes (physical activity is a surefire way to ease the anguish). It’s even OK to table your financial goals in lieu of some self-care and downtime.
Maintain Your Boundaries
While it’s OK to splurge a bit and loosen the purse strings a tad, a breakup is not a free pass to spend how you wish. It’s not OK to blow through your savings, book expensive travel that you can’t afford, disregard your budget for so long that it simply ceases to exist, or to dig yourself into debt.
Yes, breaking up is hard to do. But remember that this too shall pass and you are worth more than material objects and superficial happiness. While you will be able to work through the breakup, you might take years to recover from the debt you racked up if you allow yourself to lose financial control.
Set Small Goals and Celebrate Your Success
To find the balance between relaxing and maintain your goals, consider breaking any large or daunting goals into smaller, more manageable pieces. If that savings goal you set at the beginning of the year seems to be an insurmountable mountain right now, break it down to a smaller sum that you can sock away weekly.
No matter how small the goal is, you will find confidence and motivation in being able to cross it off your list. Celebrate each and every accomplishment and before you know it, you’ll be back on your feet in no time.
More stories from Quizzle:
Fitting self-care into your budget
Could it be better to pay off debt slowly?
How much debt is too much debt in your twenties?
It’s so important to balance taking care of your emotions and your wallet at the same time. It’s easy to overspend to comfort yourself after a breakup. The key is to allow yourself to go out and have fun, but still be mindful of your finances.
You don’t want to wake up a few months later, finally ready to move on and find the love of your life only to see you are now in thousands of dollars of debt.