So about that vacation...

As I mentioned in my January 25th post, I was forced to take a break from paying down the mortgage due to a vacation. I proposely didn't go into a lot of detail about it because I was ashamed about how much we are spending on it.  I am definitely not "acting my wage" and honestly we have no business taking this extravagant of a vacation given we are $10K under water on our house.  When I first got my job I figured all the income I made would be extra.  I had my head in the sand about the house at the time and figured the house to be at least worth what we owed so I never really thought about it.  So I thought we would have a bunch of extra money laying around and we could have some fun with it. So I briefly mentioned it was a goal of mine to visit Japan some day. 

Well next thing I know my husband is buying books about Japan and looking at travel agencies.  Based on a little research I figured we could pull it off for about $6,000, and since I didn't think we had any issues with the value of our house, it seemed like a great idea and I was getting excited to go.  My husband has been emailing a travel agent for a couple months and she finally got around to booking it and giving us the final bill. Well like everything else we have bought lately, it ended up costing more than we thought.  I knew it would cost a lot for airfare, but apparently hotels in Japan are very expensive too. So it cost about $9,000 for the trip - not including meals and other stuff we'll need when we get there there (like bus/train tickets etc).  So it's going to cost over $10,000.  I'm already having buyer's remorse because $10,000 would get us to the "break even" point on the mortgage.  I have to keep telling myself that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and not the type of vacation we could take if we have children someday.  I also need to keep reminding myself the whole reason I am trying to clean up the finances is so we can be more wealthy in the future - and why do I want to be wealthy in the future?  To do things like take vacations such as the one we are taking in a couple months. So yes, I feel ashamed that I am stressing out over money when we are taking such a nice vacation, but then again you only live once right?