Last Saturday we had a date night--dinner and a movie. (At my request we're trying to do something date-y at least once a week; enjoying our freedom, so to speak.)

Conversation turned to the two family trips we're planning this year, and I explained how I wasn't sure I'd be able to save up for much more than the plane tickets, what with the other financial goals, unpaid parental leave and unpredictability of our soon-to-arrive new family member. I revealed I was hoping that our families would pull through to provide us room, board and transportation once we got there.

AS was especially resistant to this idea. She didn't want to feel trapped with any of our families, and admitted a bit of resentment that we were using all our vacation time to visit, when no one ever visits us in return. (For understandable health and/or financial reasons, but I still get where she's coming from.) Since these are going to be our only "vacations," she wanted a few perks if possible to make them more bearable. NT also mentioned that his parents don't have a lot of extra money and so their ability to provide for us might be limited.

I recently raised our allowances, and she and NT both offered to go back to the old amount and have the extra money go into making the trips a bit more luxurious.

So that was going to be the plan, until:
- AS's tax refunds ended up being nearly $800 more than expected, and
- I realized that we could use some of the income from renting the UK flat. Every month I just shuffle whatever's left over after paying the UK mortgages into the EF. While it's certainly a good idea to do so, it's not strictly necessary to do it EVERY month. So if I keep a few months' income in checking instead of dumping it into the EF, we can use that to rent a car, have a meal or two out, or even get a night at a hotel room while we're in England.

So I now feel more confident about my chances of meeting all our financial goals AND being able to put a bit more away for the trips than I originally planned. And I don't think I'll need to take back our increased spending money, though we're all going to squirrel some of it away for the trips just in case.

On that note, AS got another freelance check. We'd decided she could afford to give me $1000 from last year's profits and $1000 from this year's. I'm taking the whole recent check minus a small IRA contribution--$690--plus $1000 from her business account, for the vacation fund. That means I've funded the $1000 for the Va. trip and have $1026 saved toward England. I'm going to get the base amounts saved, so we can order plane tickets as soon as we're sure we'll be able to travel, then work on my Amex credit card for awhile. Then, before the trips take place (June/July and Aug/Sept), I'll put some more into the Va. travel fund (the UK one should be fine now that I'm going to use the rental income for that one).

I'm happy that we're getting lucky and making so much progress on this year's goals early on! The more we do now, the more we'll be able to roll with the punches for the rest of the year.