We were talking today about how we really want to go to England next year for NT's sister's wedding (we'll also work a lot of family and friend visits into as short a time as possible). We have no idea how much plane tickets (for 3 people) will be in April, nor what our lodging expenses will be (whether we can swing staying with others the whole time, or if we'll need to get a hotel part of the time), nor whether we'll need a rental car for part or all of it (probably, and gas is ungodly expensive in UK compared to US).

So I decided to presume worst-case scenario and begin to prepare for that. I went on orbitz.com and started planning a 7-day vacation for 3 people with airfare, hotel, rental car and gas, and $500 (250 pounds) spending money for the entire week. It came to about $5000. (Yikes!) So, I'm thinking that's the outside number and we'll be able to get in WAY under that.

At first, I was going to try and save the actual money for the trip, but then I realized it would be a waste to sock that money away while we're still paying interest on debt. So I'm going to add $5000 to our overall debt calculation, pretend it's already there as a 0% interest debt. Then I'm going to pay off debt as aggressively as possible in other places instead of saving that money. When it comes time to pay for the trip, I'll use a low-interest credit card for it. I think this will save us paying some interest in the long run, and seeing that $5000 debt on my list will drive me nuts, causing me to really pinch pennies and pay debt off faster. Plus, the actual trip will probably be much cheaper, and our tax refund should pay for a good chunk of it, so I'll get to wipe off some "debt" after the trip instead of adding some on!