No one likes a hangover.

They’re painful, regretful, and depending on how bad the binge was, recovery can be a nightmare.

And, actually, a spending hangover might be worse than a regular hangover. You can’t just drink some Gatorade, fall asleep and hope it goes away in a couple of hours. Nope, the headache from a spending binge can last for months. It throws your budget for a loop, and makes you feel all kinds of frustrated.

I’ve been there. The more I get control of my finances, the less often it happens. But I’ve had enough past experience with overspending that I know how to deal with it when it happens. Here’s a step-by-step guide to getting back to frugal after a spending binge.   

Step One: Let Go of the Guilt

It’s only natural to feel regret after you’ve spent hundreds of dollars on clothes you’ll never wear, or $50 for a lunch you didn’t budget for (I’ve done both). But the sooner you let go of the guilt, the better. You want to get back to feeling in control. Emotions can cloud your judgment and your control, so it’s best to work through them and see your situation from a practical perspective

On the other hand, you do want to learn from your mistake.

For example, when I spent $50 for a steak at lunch, I felt regret immediately after ordering it. It’d be one thing if I planned for this spending, but my budget just isn’t set up for dropping half a Benjamin on a piece of meat. Afterward, I considered why I did it:

• I let my friend pick the restaurant for lunch. She picked the most expensive place in a 5-mile radius.
• I felt embarrassed being a frugal person at a fancy restaurant, so I tried to overcompensate by ordering something expensive. This was subconscious, but stupid.
• I like steak. I wanted to treat myself.

When I understood why I made the mistake, I could glean a few lessons from it:

• Tell my friend I’m on a budget and suggest a more affordable alternative.
• Be more aware of my spending, and what influences it.
• Treat myself in more cost-effective ways. My fiance makes a better steak, anyway.

Learn from your mistakes, then move on. Here are a few tips that help me let go of the guilt:

Return the item: If possible, this is the easiest way to avoid regret. Simply undo the damage.
Create a “Money Regrets” budget: Keep track of windfalls or savings until your spending is recouped.

Step Two: Come Up With a Plan

More effective than anything in getting over the guilt is having a plan in place. This plan helps you get back on track and fix your budget. Depending on how big your binge was, you might have to completely readjust your budget. It’s a pretty simple process:

1. Calculate how much you overspent.
2. Review other categories of your budget to see where you can cut back.
3. Reduce the spending amounts in those categories until your binge amount is recouped. Once you save money–enough to fully recover–you can readjust those categories.

But here’s a tip: Don’t try to cut back on too much at once. You need some breathing room in your budget, otherwise you risk overspending again.

Change Your Habits

Beyond recovering financially, you may also need a plan to recover from your binge-spending, if it’s a habitual habit. If you want to break a habit, consider the habit loop:

Your cue is what triggers your spending in the first place. The reward is how you feel immediately after the spending. In The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, author Charles Duhigg uses his cookie-buying habit as an example. He realizes his cue is time: every day at 3:30, he leaves his desk to go buy a cookie at a nearby cafeteria. He realized that his reward was a temporary work distraction. To break the routine, he needed to recognize the cue and find something to offer the same type of reward, without having to buy and eat the cookie. He replaced his routine with going to chat with a coworker. He still got his reward, but he wasn’t eating junk food. You can do the same thing with your overspending habit. Many times, just being aware of what your cue is can make a big difference. But if you can find a way to reward yourself without overspending, that’ll really nip the problem in the bud.

Step Three: Stick to It

Once you have a plan in place, you obviously want to stick to it. Easier said than done, but here are a few things that might help.

Make the plan realistic: Again, don’t make your recovery plan too strict or you might risk blowing it again. We need some room for splurging in our budget: you don’t want to live beyond your means, but don’t try to tell yourself you’ll spend zero dollars on anything fun for the next six months, either. You know your limits, so work with them.

Use visual triggers: I loved this tip over at Budgets are Sexy a while back. It involves using a physical cue to jumpstart your habit. For example, if your habit is to jog more, you might put your sneakers and workout clothes at the front of your closet. If your habit is to dine out less, you might put some pre-made meals at the front of your fridge for easy access. It boils down to two steps: find a visual cue that motivates you to take action, then put that cue in a prime location.

Find an accountabilibuddy: Grab a partner to help hold you accountable for your goals.

So you’ve got your plan in place and you’re set to follow through with it. Now, you want to prevent your binge-spending doesn’t happen again in the first place.

Step Four: Prevent Future Binging

Come up with a splurge budget: Once again, it’s important to give yourself some elbow room in your budget. If you create a “splurge” category, you’re at least being more mindful of the fact that you will, at some point, feel like splurging. And when you have a dollar limit on it, it’s a lot easier to manage.

Pay yourself first: Make sure you put money toward your financial goal when you get paid. This way, you don’t have the option to take away from that goal later–you’ve already used your money for saving or paying off debt.

Use cash: So you’ve paid yourself first, but you’re still finding a way to spend money you don’t have. It might be time to put the credit or debit cards away and switch to cash-only. It’s an old-school method, but it works. I usually overspend on restaurants. Reverting to a cash-only system reminds me to be a little more mindful about my spending. When I get it back under control, I go back to spending with my credit cards so I can earn rewards.

At any rate, this is how I’ve dealt with recovering from spending binges in the past. How have you nursed your spending hangovers? Sound off in the comments below.

Photo: Toms Baugis.