Breaking the Frugal Rules

There are all sorts of frugal rules when you are working to get out of debt – make a budget, don’t eat in restaurants, don’t go to the shops to browse, stick to the list when food shopping, don’t buy anything unless it is a necessity, to name just a few. – I try to abide all of the rules but I am about to break one – don’t go on holiday until you are debt free.  Dave Ramsey would be very disappointed, if he knew who I was.

My beloved and I have decided to take a proper holiday this year.  By saying a proper holiday, we are going to a resort where I will not be cooking, cleaning or food shopping.  This will be our first real holiday in three years.

I did a lot of soul searching before deciding to go away, I was torn between my ambition to get out of debt as quickly as possible and feeling quite exhausted.  After many discussions we decided that if we planned it correctly and worked to get the best deal possible it would actually be a good thing.

I know I am breaking a frugal rule and am slowing down my debt reduction but that is the thing about personal finance – it’s personal. And on a personal level, both of us seemed to be running out of steam. How do you know when you are running out of steam, well we both have started to do stupid things.  I have burned food, something I never do, I have gotten very clumsy, not sleeping well, also my memory is not what it should be.  I won’t go into the things beloved has been doing but it isn’t good.

We believe that with a bit of R&R, we will come home with more force, vitality and creative ideas for optimizing our life . We are taking work with us so we are hoping to be a least a little bit productive.  The holiday is all inclusive so we will not have to spend a penny once we get there.

I spent quite a lot of time searching  for a suitable holiday – I got ours through Travel Supermarket – once I found a nice looking place within our price range, I then cross referenced it with Trip Advisor. Hint – don’t look at holidays that are out of your range; you will want what you can’t really afford, it is a slippery slope.  I put in our maximum price then sorted the list from cheapest first.  Also watch out for the extras and taxes, you might have to spend a bit less on the actual holiday.  Holiday companies are charging for every little thing including sitting with the person you are traveling with on the plane.  Read the small print before you hit the pay button.

I think this is the first instance that we have put the personal in front of the finance.  Have you been in a similar situation? Did you reap the benefit of putting personal in front of finance.