Highlights
 
●      Increases in spending from the Easter holiday can put a squeeze on your household budget.
●      Many Australians are facing extra pressures this year with record-high petrol prices and other cost-of-living pressures.
●      Good post-holiday budget habits can help you get spending back on track and manage debt.

If you’ve found yourself spending a bit more than you intended over the Easter holidays, you’re not alone. With many Australians managing the pressure of record-high petrol prices, simple holidays like road trips ended up costing more than expected. If you gasped in shock at the price of Easter chocolate this year, trust us, you weren’t the only one! And for those with school aged children who needed entertainment over the holidays, the cost of outings (and food, always so much food!) can quickly mount up as debt.

It’s incredibly easy to overspend during holidays. In fact,  2025 Roy Morgan data found that Australians were planning to spend around $2.2 bn on Easter food and chocolate - that’s a lot of hot-cross buns.

Whatever debt you ended up with post the Easter holidays, the good news is that with a bit of structure and focus, this can just be a temporary setback rather than a spiral into long-term debt.

Action is key to overcoming financial anxiety

It’s normal to feel a bit panicked if you’ve overspent during the Easter holidays. But like any form of anxiety, the key to getting through this is to take action rather than getting into blame games, or even worse, ignoring the situation.

The first step is to take a look at what bills you have coming up and know what your minimum payments need to be. If you’ve got something big like an annual insurance bill, can you look at shifting to monthly payments to reduce the immediate pressure? Or if you know you’ve put a bit more than you planned to on your credit card, will you need to make extra payments to avoid interest accruing? Once you know what you need to pay and when, you can work out a plan.

Once you know what payments are coming up, compare this to your income. If you can see a shortfall, it’s time to see where you can save money. Ideas might include:

• Stretching out what’s already in your pantry and freezer so as to  avoid the supermarket (and its impulse buy temptations) for a week. 
• Establish a takeaway ban for a couple weeks to help claw back that Easter bunny chocolate blow out. 
• Switch to public transport  for a month, if possible, to help you avoid those high petrol prices. 

Everyone’s situation is different, but with some intentional effort, most people can find at least a couple of ways to reduce their short-term spending. And when it comes to addressing your post-holiday budgeting, little changes can add up.

If it’s not just a short-term seasonal blip and your finances need a bit more structure, it might be time to work on a household budget. There’s lots of great online budget tools to help you work out where your money is going and where you might need to address your spending habits. A clear budget is especially important if you need to get back on track and reset to successfully manage debt.

Don’t let short-term debt affect your credit score

One of the biggest risks of seasonal overspending is not having enough money on hand to make your bill payments. Missed bill payments, whether that’s energy bills, rent or credit cards, can impact your credit score under Australia’s Comprehensive Credit Reporting rules. Your repayment history over the past 24 months helps to shape your credit score, so it's important to aim for on-time payments.

Remember, if your credit score is less than ideal, there’s plenty of small actions you can take. Lots of people have rebuilt their finances and you can too - it’s all about creating good financial habits and a realistic budget you can actually stick to.

If you are worried about your credit score, you can get a free credit report from Equifax once every three months. For more frequent updates,  sign up for our credit  alerts and  identity protection. Starting at just $9.95 a month, these tools help you monitor scams and track how your personal information is being used online. 

Check out our plans and how they can help you take control of your credit rating and identity risk.
 

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is general in nature and does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Therefore, you should consider whether the information is appropriate to your circumstance before acting on it, and where appropriate, seek professional advice from a finance professional such as an adviser.