I have started dreading ordinary spending in a way that feels unhealthy

Dear Delyara, Not luxury spending. Ordinary spending. Groceries. Fuel. School shoes. A prescription. A simple takeaway. A child’s birthday present. Toilet paper. Nothing glamorous. Nothing reckless. Just the basic architecture of life. And still I can feel dread entering me before the card even leaves my wallet. That’s what makes me think the problem is no longer only the budget. It’s what the budget has done to my nervous system. The way spending now feels morally loaded. The way every ordinary cost has begun arriving with guilt, calculation, and that little private tightening in my chest that says be careful, be careful, be careful. It is exhausting to live inside a body that reacts to normal life like it’s almost always one receipt away from becoming threat.