I can tell the difference based upon my motivation and the urgency of it. If I'm like "Ok, I gotta do X, Y, and Z.... guess I'll do that this weekend" then it's normal. If I'm like "OK I really want XYZ done so let's do it now!!!!!" then it's more like hypomania. Same with shopping - if I just randomly purcahse something that's out of range, and then I find myself randomly purchasing other things just to treat myself.. hypomania. If it's a "Ok, you made it through the school year, here you can buy that magic bullet you've wanted to buy for months!" then it's normal.

Like... I spent $2000 in one weekend back in March. Was it hypomania? No. I had a list of what I wanted to purchase, it was my only weekend where I COULD do any shopping, and I'd just heard how much money I was getting back from taxes.

The $150 I spent in December however, on craft supplies to try and do some random craft with my students? Likely hypomania, as I didn't have a clue what I was buying them for and just thought they were too cool to not purchase.