I was in a similar spot for a while, and I still have a lot of regret and frustration, but it definitely loses some of the edge over time. It's so frustrating to know what you should have done, and not being able to do anything about it now, and the expenses keep coming as you are trying to save every dime. But keep doing the best you can and the regret diminishes and the expenses do go down, the bigger problem is not losing that focus over time as the months go by... :)