Ready to splurge this summer? Follow these tips to avoid tumbling into debt in the process – KENS5

SAN ANTONIO — Americans say they are ready to spend as they re-enter the world.

“We’ve seen a lot of talk about this big potential explosion of pent-up spending that may be coming,” said Matt Schulz, the chief credit analyst for LendingTree.com.

Almost half of Americans are willing to get into debt this summer as they take advantage of traveling, dining, and going back to work, a LendingTree survey found.

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Go out to eat, but set a budget.

“If we allow ourselves $100 a month to go out for food, we may not go to a really fancy restaurant once,” said Trae Bodge, a smart shopping expert. “We may go out to a more moderately priced restaurant four times. We make more measured decisions when we have those parameters that we need to live with.”

LendingTree found about 80% of people plan to spend money going back to work. The average cost was $750 for clothing, décor and supplies.

Head back to work in style by shopping your closet first.

“You obviously want to feel special and good when you’re going back to the office,” said Bodge. “But the first thing I would recommend is to go through your closet because if you’ve been wearing loungewear for an entire year, you probably don’t remember what is in your closet waiting for you to wear again. You might have bought something new for yourself at the beginning of 2020. You probably don’t remember that.”

Ditch the debt, not the fun.