Feeling financial fatigue, mama? How to get control of your money in 5 steps

Burnout is something we all experience and stress from your finances may play a major part in that. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to combat financial fatigue and finally feel like you’re in a positive relationship with your money.

Here are a few tips that will help to reduce your money stress—to ensure that you’re equipped with an actionable plan to take control of your finances and finally meet your money goals.

1. Know where you stand

The best way to counteract getting overwhelmed is getting organized. First thing’s first: rip off the band-aid, look at how much your household has spent (and on what). Spend time checking your bills and looking at your bank account balance and credit statements to get a clear picture of where your finances are at.

2. Adjust your budget

Rewrite your budget to fit your current reality. Budgeting can help you see where you can cut unnecessary expenses and increase flexibility in your family’s choices down the line. If you have to tighten your belt for the first month or so of the year to ensure you’re paying back your holiday debts, so be it.

If budgeting feels overwhelming, start with an app that can simplify it. Mint, for example, allows you to create budgets that make sense for you. You Need a Budget breaks down your spending as well.

3. Take action to boost your credit score

Here are three ways to do just that:

1. Set up autopay: Whether or not you make payments on time is the most important element in the calculation of your credit score. As long as you pay your bills on or before the deadline, your score will be in good standing. Turbo is a great, free resource to monitor how your credit score is affected by your bill payments.
2. Know your credit utilization: Something that we don’t always take into consideration is our credit utilization. Your credit utilization is the ratio of your credit card balances to credit limits. If you’re using your credit cards responsibly and paying bills on time, you will lower your credit utilization percentage, thus increasing your credit score.
3. Keep old accounts open: Your credit age makes up 15% of your credit score, and the only way to increase the age is to keep old accounts open and avoid opening new ones.

4. Set clear goals and hold yourself accountable

Does your family have big vacation plans, or maybe a new house is on the horizon? Make sure that you’re considering both short and long-term goals early on, so they don’t creep up on you. Be honest with yourself from the get-go so you can plan and prepare for your upcoming expenses. Once you’ve set your goals and your focus is on getting back on track, hold yourself accountable by setting regular check-ins to track your progress.

5. Be easy on yourself

Events, like the holidays, birthdays or vacation are meant to be celebrated, and that means festivities, fun and (maybe) some frivolousness. Don’t beat yourself up if your bank account looks different than you expected after they’re over. As long as you’re actively working toward your financial goals, being consistent and being patient with yourself, your bank statements (and financial fatigue) will even out.

You might also like:

• 17 ways to get financially fit going into the new year, mama
• The unexpected reason marriage improved my finances
• 5 reasons a budget doesn’t work for you, mama—and how to fix them