Your Opinions Please (about holiday)

specsappeal

Hello everyone - hope you are all well!
I was wondering if you fine people could give me your opinions please. Basically, as you can see from my signature i have outstanding mortgage of approx £55,00- this is an offset mortgage and i have £12,000 in my offset savings account. I also have the unsecured loan which has approx 6 and a half years left.(i know people will say i should use the savings to get rid of the debt but i cant do this as many years ago i was so skint that i would go for days without eating and so this is my safety net that i cannot let go of). Anyway the debt i have IS manageable and i do overpay on both the mortgage and loan each month. My husband and i have never been abroad and neither have our children (ages 16, 13, 11) which is not a hardship but something we would like to do. My daugher will be leaving home to join the Royal Navy in the summer of 2008 and i doubt she will ever move back home once she has done this . My DH and I would like to take the kids on a once in a lifetime holiday. This includes 3 nights in San fransisco, 4 nights in Yosemite National Park and 3 nights in Las Vegas. Total for holiday £5,500 (out of savings, which leaves approx £6,500 to offset mortgage) and approx £1500 spending money (which we can save during the year).
Do you think this is ok to do?? I suppose i just want opinions on whether it is a justifiable expense. I know many people will say that because we have debt we should not even think of spending that much on a holiday but we do manage the debt ok. I also would love my daughter to have this experience with us while she still lives with us and i feel it would be my last chance to spend quality time with her. What do you all think - all opinions will be taken on board. Thanks all

themaccas

Only you can make the decision but for what it's worth we have decided to take family holidays whilst we are paying off our debt and so far we ahve no regrets. We are going to NY in 8 weeks time our oldest is 16 too and we know that in 2-3 years he won't be wanting to go on holiday with us anymore. 18 months ago we went to Orlando on a holiday that cost us the best part of 8K and our debts were at their highest. Even now we have no regrets, it was a great holiday. I think if you are happy with delaying your df date then you should go for it. It sounds a great holiday, one we would love to do.

thesaint

You say that the money is your safety net, so will not use it to get rid of some of your debts, but are considering using the same money for a holiday.

crawley_girl

I have decided that even though I have debts, I still have holidays. I work my little !!! off overpaying my debts every month.

I can't tell you that it's ok or that it's not ok, only you and your family can decide what you are going to do and the impact of going/not going will have on your family.

Good luck with making the decision

PS Does it need to be that holiday? Could it be done cheaper? Or could you find somewhere else less expensive?

bank_of_slate

I would go for it specs and have a fantastic time.
You have obviously thought about this carefully and worked out the finances.
If you don't live your life to the full and pass up opportunities like this then you will regret it and be more likely to slip back into spending.

Have your holiday and make sure you have a bloody good time!
...Linda xx

specsappeal

thanks for replies.
thesaint - yes i did say that but i meant that im sure some people would say to use all the savings to chuck at the debts which i would not do. i would pay £5,000 off of them - in fact i settled an outstanding £4000 loan in november using the savings but i really do want to give my kids their first and probably last holiday abroad with us, especially my daughter who after training could be posted overseas for 2 years.
Crawleygirl - i think that my kids deserve one holiday as they do get jealous of their mates but never complain. there are cheaper holidays to be had but we are not 'lay on the beach' people (we live next to the sea anyway lol). the trip includes lots of excusions and walks and outings (i.e into the mountains for a sunset picnic, trip to grand canyon etc) and for what we would get is pretty good value for money. the price is higher cos 2 eldest kids are classed as adults and we have to have 2 rooms in hotel and 2 lodges etc. price includes car hire and insurance etc. i work so hard and we do go without alot in order to overpay on bills, debts and mortgage etc so i am leaing toward the view that we should just go for it, it just kinda goes against the grain after all these years of saving and paying etc.

Little_Miss_Winner

Go for it!!! life is for living, you have the money, so get it booked!

pudding06

We too have taken holdiays with our kids and they now no longer come with us - although they did until they were 18 and 19 years.

I appreciate how you feel and I have memories of all 6 of us on holiday abroad. They appreciated them, even though we were just camping in france an spain. We found we could do 3 weeks in france and spain, eating out and lots of sightseeing for about 2000 - 2500, sometimes less.

I will never regret it. So go with your gut instinct. Onl;y you can decide. You have the money - so its not as though youre borrowing it.

pudds

WhiteLily_2

I say go for it aswell - life is too short; you have the money; manageable debts; Memories are priceless no matter what life chucks at you. Be happy, be healthy and have fun!

dinkylou

Specs, Go for it, have the holiday.

It looks like you have done a fair bit of reasearch into it and are already taking all your debts very seriously. Are you sure that this holiday is the one you all want? Maybe you could set the family with a budget and the task of thinking of ideas of where they would all like to go?

Maybe you could encourage the family to ebay some things to try and add to the spending money whilst you are there?

Whilst, yes, you have debt like most of us on here, its about finding a balance and it seems that you have been working on your debt for a long time.

katglasgow

I had a very similar holiday in the same places with my family (I am the oldest of 3 and was 17 at the time) it was our last family holiday together and we all had a wonderful time. Yeseomite Nat Park is amazing and Sanfransisco was very cool for teenagers!