Help!! Pre-lightbulb holiday dilemma

beverleyhills

:T Congratulations on giving up smoking.

The holiday may put you in a smoking environment. Duty Free cigarettes were always my downfall when I was trying to give up smoking. After over 35 years of non smoking there are still occasions when I fancy a cigarette.

If you change the holiday or defer it the company will probably impose an administration charge.

Annie_Fanny

Hey Ali-OK

Have you checked out all your options - post them up here! And worked out all the pros and cons?

Cancel - lose deposit (boo!)

Defer - administration charge? how much? how long can you defer for?

Snowball - How much longer to pay off your debts with the xtra spent on holiday added on? How does it affect DFD?

How much quicker to pay off your debts if you don't go and throw the £2k at your debts instead? How does it affect DFD?

Can you do another type of holiday? Visit friends/rellies?

Motivation - do you need this holiday? Will it do you the world of good or can you forsake it for 1 year and not feel the difference?

Whatever your decision is I am sure it will be the right one!

Keep up the good work!

Annie
Xx

Annie_Fanny

By the way - giving up smoking - how cool are you! Well done!

mom23

Hi
think i'd be tempted to change to a cheaper holiday it does sound a lot for you and a little one,5 of us went last year for not much more than that HB.
I also changed my holiday last year (due to probs )to a cheaper one and i think we had to pay a small admin fee but we saved a fortune and had the best holiday ever!!!
Sometimes going for 2 wks is not much dearer than going for 1
It can also cost a small fortune holidaying in this country , and staying at home and going out for days is also a mindblower!!! ( i have 3 children).
Having said this we are def not going on holiday this year (but had i pre booked before lighbulb mo who knows!!! ) maybe next !!
Good luck with whatever you decide

Ali-OK

Evening all :wave:

Thanks everyone for the replies so far.

It's not much of an update so we're all in suspense until tomorrow morning now!

My job is manic, so didn't get chance to call the holiday company today and not been home long (dinner is on, so multi-tasking!).

I think my preferences are:

(i) Defer it until next year
(ii) Shorten it to one week this year

Those options hopefully will mean the deposit isn't wasted. If those aren't viable, then I'm going to cancel it.

I will ask them what the options are first anyway and take it from there.

Chortle_2

I know you've already decided to cancel if you can't swap holidays/defer, but I always find this http://www.whatsthecost.com/treats.aspx helps when I want something big that would stop me paying off my debts as quickly as I'd like... it never fails to convince me that I don't need it :rotfl:

Ali-OK

Thanks for that Chortle.

I just put the figures in..bottom line it would cost me an extra £232 on interest to go, but the deposit I'd lose would be £265!

There again, I'd shave 3 months off the debt by putting the hols money towards the cc's - that's based on my current payments. And they are increasing (somewhere between £150-250 a month) due to the savings I'm making on my outgoings. Which means I could be debt-free probably 9 months earlier.

I expect loads of you are shouting "CANCEL" at the screen to me!! I do value my holiday for R&R, sunshine and heat. I also want to get rid of my debt - I have to decide how much I want to do that vs. having this treat.

Ahhh....decisions, decisions and some snowballing calcs to do after dinner!

Broken_hearted

Take the holiday.

fairylights_2

CANCEL!!! :rotfl:

Honestly? You're paying a horrendous amount to go somewhere that's not that expensive, for not many of you. I'd scratch up the £260 to experience and holiday closer to home this year. You'll be debt free three months earlier, and then able to go where you want without feeling guilty (because you know you're going to)

Still, that's just my tuppence. If you do go, don't feel bad, enjoy the break and then come home and crack on with your paying back.

tomstickland

Agreed. Personally I could not go on holiday if I knew it was adding to the debt.