Throwing caution to the wind

So, a big thing is happening in January. Huge. We're going on holiday. Yes, I know. Doesn't sound big really does it? But for us a holiday is always a big thing as it has happened so rarely and this one is huge. Australia. Yep, we're going to Australia in January for three weeks! For the most part we'll be staying in Cairns as we both want to do a lot of adventure stuff and then we have a few days with a friend in Melbourne.

We very rarely take holidays so for this to come about, and so quickly in the last month, is nothing short of a miracle. A few things came together all in one go and we made the decision to throw caution to the wind and go for it.

1. We've thought about visiting Australia for years but there's always been something stopping us. Normally Martin's work. His last office refused all leave for longer than two weeks and anything longer than a week had to be granted special permission by a not-so-nice office manager, who rarely, if ever granted it. We'd given up the idea years ago but never thought to ask after he moved to this new office. The idea came up again, he checked and the new office said "no problem, enjoy yourself". Woohoo!

2. MIL will be 85 next Spring and is relatively healthy, but she will not fly anywhere and cannot sit in a car for longer than a couple of hours. When she starts to decline, decent holidays may not be able to happen for a long time if she needs nursing care.

3. My BIL has temporarily moved to the area, so he can keep an eye on MIL if we go away. She doesn't need a lot of looking after but doesn't like to be left alone at night so BIL can stay and make sure she is ok. The cats won't take to catteries for the first time at the advanced age of 14 so this means they can stay in the house. Come next March BIL may be moving elsewhere and it gets that much harder to achieve a holiday at all.

4. Brexit has had an odd effect on me lately. It occurred to me that if Brexit prompts a recession then my instinct to batten down the hatches may mean we will end up not taking a holiday for a few years to ensure we achieve our retirement goals instead. Therefore ideally we need to do this sooner rather than later.

5. Affording it. We achieved our savings goal for the year, made the last payment into the accounts for 2018 on 1st December ( I make sure we pay ourselves first every month and make do on the rest). Our saving account is healthy and can stand the expense.

However,  all my intentions to pay for it flew out of the window when it actually came to getting the money out of the savings account. I cannot bring myself to see that wad of cash disappear yet. I've scoured the market for a credit card that offered 0% interest for 18 months and put the cost of the holiday onto there for now.

Until the moment when I had to pay for it, I had been delighted to have the money saved and made all preparations to transfer it across, but I suddenly turned into Fraser from Dad's Army in The Miser's Hoard (s9 ep4), where he counts out his gold sovereigns and rubs his hands. I just couldn't do it. I'd rather spread the cost interest-free than see a large chunk of cash disappear in one go. It hurts less!

I'm not sure whether that is a good instinct or a bad one. I suppose it would be a bad one if I was incurring interest payments but no interest for 18 months just seems like a bit of a gift really so we can keep that liquid cash for emergencies and pay off the holiday in regular chunks.

So, I'm finding it a bit difficult to concentrate on Christmas at the moment. I want it to be over so I can go on holiday!

Photo Credits: Reef, Fraser

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If you've commented on my blog recently and haven't had a response I'm not ignoring you. It appears that blogger has decided my replies are not blog worthy and hasn't bothered to publish them. I only realised this morning that my responses over the last month have not been published and have disappeared from my account entirely. I shall go back and redo them all.

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