the schrodinger's cat trip

[alicia1506]

hey all,

i'm at that place in my planning/stressing that our trip is much like schrodinger's cat... it is a distinct possibility that at any given time we are both definitely going and definitely not going on the trip.

i have been sick recently, meaning a lot of unpaid sick leave, which is eating into our finances and ability to save for our trip.. meaning if things don't get better soon... we might not be able to afford the trip, or we might have to start cutting out bits. and i really don't want to do that.

by the same token, we have put down deposits on the cruise & our disneyland hotel stay and i'm proceeding with the planning/stressing as if this whole thing is going ahead full steam.

my biggest question is... do you get that same sense of OMG, what if we can't make it/something happens/we can't get the money together ... etc stage of your planning. it happened to me last year too. right about 8 months before we flew out, i got really stressed that it was all coming apart and we weren't going to make it... and then i got over it.

do you stress for a bit? do you feel the pressure to make the dream come true for your loved ones and worry about how you're going to make all that planning a reality? do you freak out that the money isn't going to stretch far enough, or that job/home pressures will cause your planning to go awry?

or am i being completely weird about this whole thing? inquiring/stressed out minds want to know

 

[battymum]

Oh yes, I never truly believed that we would go on our trip until we were on the plane!

Actually it was when we paid for the airfare, as until then everything was refundable.

Once that airfare was paid, which was in January for our September trip - there was no going back unless there was a death or serious illness that insurance would cover.

While we did save for our trip and everything was paid for without drawing on our mortgage or credit card, a lot of things suffered at home, I am still catching up on all that, but dont have a single regret!!

 

[alicia1506]

thank god i'm not out here on this limb all alone!!

i too don't want to draw back on our credit cards -- in fact, my goal for the year is to pay off the card in full (which we did use on our trip last year for emergency expenses like a $500 room service bill ) plus save for the trip and all expenses including spending money.

goal is for all trip expenses to be paid for in cash this time around... well. cash that we've moved from savings onto the usa $ prepaid card, or credit card etc. i don't want to be carrying $1000s around in cash

but my medical bills and lack of paid wages are really starting to cut into our small household budget, and my big dreams of a lovely relaxing trip seem to be getting further and further away.

our deposits are refundable, but i kinda wish they weren't so that this was a little more solidly locked in. i'm off to research our options and see if there's anything we can do to drop some prices along the way, and reconfigure our savings/household budget to ensure that we can do this.

i don't like relying on things like tax returns, but this year, i think it will be nice to just bank those as part of our savings and take some of the stress off our savings plan

 

[becpee]

I'm living it now!

High airfares, bills, looking at changing DS's school to private, and shoes, bloody shoes! Running shoes, golf shoes, work shoes! I know it sounds ridiculous but it all adds up!

And also attending a wedding where everything is adding right up, engagement present done (thank goodness), I skipped out on the kitchen tea , bucks party all day event, babysitter, wedding present, DH needs a new suit i'm a little ashamed to say I really don't want to spend the money...

I'm waiting for airfares to drop and if they don't I may be cancelling, somebody pointed out to me on here the other day that October is officially now it's own travel season, and the airfares are higher than July, all true

 

[battymum]

Oh yeah, i forgot about tax returns - I was sort of relying on that, but hadnt received a statement that I needed until the day before we left - so my last night was spent frantically doing e tax. (and packing and stressing in general)

We had a nice surprise when we got back! I actually got more than I had anticipated.

 

[WAMUMOF4]

you are certainly not the only one i feel like i am weeks behind where i should be right now with paying for things
Our airfares are paid and to be honest i wish i was only looking at booking them.

DH loosing his job was most certainly not on the cards i know he will get another one but it all takes time for medicals etc and the reality is i am seriously thinking about cancelling but when i go on the Qantas page it tells me our voucher would have to be used by October so that would be useless.

If we were to cancel now we would loose in excess of $14000 with what we have already paid and we just cant do that so i am thinking i may be looking at a budget trip instead of the luxury one we had planned and if worse comes to worse we will not go on the Disney cruise I am very happy this is a surprise trip and the kids have no expectations.

DH has already said he will not take time off and keep working so we can still go and whilst that is very sweet of him this is our last time we will be paying for us to all go so i would rather not go than have that happen.
In my heart i know it will all work out it has every other year but right now i just feel

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Alicia, yes I do feel like this at times, especially since I am self employed and at the mercy of the public as to whether I make money or not.

Now I don't wish to suck the pixie dust out of this conversation , but I wonder if you are at all concerned that your health issues may not be completely resolved by then since they seem to be a mystery at the moment? It would be very sad to spend all of that money and be sick the whole time you are away. Have you considered perhaps postponing the trip, or at the least the planning thereof, until you know more about what you are dealing with?

Because this is an existing illness, would travel insurance even cover you at this point? if something got more serious whilst you were away?

Okay, that's enough serious stuff from me, I'm sure all of this has crossed your mind a bazillion times already.

I'll keep my fingers and toes crossed for you that it all works out brilliantly in the end.

 

[dabecs]

We are having a Schrodinger's moment too - my husband has applied for a new job. So option a is he stays where he is and we go. Option b is he gets the job and they say he can take leave in November and we go. Option c is he gets the job but they tell him he can't take leave in November - then I don't know what we will do!

It's made the last 2 weeks really hard, he has had the first interview, completed the psychometric testing and now we have to wait... The hardest part is it's a really great job and not one that will come along again anytime soon.

Waiting is always the hardest part...

I hope sprinkles some pixie dust on all our dreams!

 

[aussietravellers]

I have moments when I don't know if we are going on this trip or not. I am not telling my son until the day we go as I don't want to get him all excited and then have to cancel, so I'm just organising the trip and really hope that we do end up going. It will be so sad if we don't get to go this time

Before our last big US trip I had a major medical problem. I tore an artery in my neck. It was really touch and go there for a while if we could go or not, right up to a few days before we left. Aside from the possibility of not getting medical clearance, which I eventually got, the next problem was not getting travel insurance. As it is a major vascular problem/issue I could not get travel insurance. As my risk of stoke was/is very high, I really could not travel without medical insurance. Thank goodness, about a week before we left, still thinking we will have to cancel after my insurance was denied for the third time. I realised that I had booked and paid for our airfares and our accommodation in NY (nothing else, no WDW or internal flights) and all on my visa and that was before I tore the artery. So I had insurance through Visa, that is provided when you pay for a certain percentage of your holiday with the card. I had done that and as the condition was not preexisting when I made those purchases, the insurance covered my new condition. So we got to go. But for 6 months, it was all up in the air, I kept planning, but the reality was that I could possibly not be alive let alone just not travel.

But in the end it all worked out. We went on our holiday, had an amazing time. So what will be will be. If it doesn't work out for you in the end this trip, there will be another

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Aussietravellers - I remember all of that like it was yesterday. You were very stressed and even on the trip you had to take things easy at times if I recall correctly. I didn't realise that about VISA, are you covered if you just purchase the flights or was it because a large portion of your whole holiday was purchased on it that it worked out?

 

[Aust]

I really hope your health issues are worked out soon - it must be really hard to live with such uncertainty and pain with no real answers.


I feel a bit that way in regards to paying for this trip, I'm realising my 1 year saving plan was a bit aggressive with 5 of us to pay for now, and my trip savings budget has gone out the window the last month or so as we recover from Christmas and pay all the start of year bills for school, activities, some work we're doing on the house, everyday bills etc etc. I want to have as much as possible paid for before we go and not use any credit either so it's a lot of money. Next time I'm giving myself at least 2 years to save.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

BTW - I had to Google Schrodinger's Cat

Not the brightest spark

 

[PrincessInOz]

BTW - I had to Google Schrodinger's Cat

Not the brightest spark

Shuttergirl - for some of us tragics, Schrodinger is Data's cat on Star Trek The Next Generation.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

OH so is that why I didn't know who it was? because I'm not a trekkie . So it wasn't just because I am thick as a brick.

 

[PrincessInOz]

You're never thick as a brick!

 

[alicia1506]

ms shuttergirl -- lol. don't worry about having to google it. i got it from stargate and big bang theory... i'm no science/physics/quantum entanglement guru. in fact, i barely passed advanced science in high school. languages and history and business were my forte. lol.

you are 100% right about not really knowing what the future will hold, health wise. as i write this, i am waiting for the ambulance to arrive to whisk me up to hospital. another attack last night which has not gone completely away, i had friday & monday off due to pain attacks, and last night as i was trying to focus & just BREATHE through the pain, i realised that in the month since i was first admitted to hospital/diagnosed with this issue, i have had 21 different instances of really acute, mind numbing, omg-kill-me-now pain and the chronic low grade pain on a daily basis. we've decided to screw the idea of waiting around for the surgeons and specialists to get back to me and take the bull by the horns and just get some emergency treatment asap as i don't know how much longer i can deal with this kind of pain.

we had a big talk last night about planning/saving for this trip, and we have 4 scenarios -- our original plan of PE flights, disney cruise, chicago then disneyland incl disneyland hotel stay

then plan b. PE flights, cruise, no chicago, disneyland including disneyland hotel stay.

then plan c. economy flights, cruise, chicago, disneyland including disneyland hotel stay.

then plan d. economy flights, cruise, no chicago, disneyland including only 1 night at disneyland hotel.

we will move forward in terms of saving for plan a, then look at bookings for plan b, c or d as it gets closer to the time if a doesn't work out for us..

trip insurance... hopefully this medical issue will be resolved long before we have to book flights etc. we did pay for our cruise/disneyland deposit on our credit card before this came up, so our credit card will cover that portion of the vacation...

so yeah... called the ambulance and they'll be here any minute. will post more when i get back.

 

[5ofus]

God Alicia, it sounds awful. I hope you can get some treatment for the pain at least.

As for keeping the savings plan going and seeing what unfolds, it's a great idea. Having a Disney trip on the horizon is a good way to get through hard times.

 

[WAMUMOF4]

I hope you get some answers for all this pain

 

[aussietravellers]

Oh Alicia, that is just terrible, I hope you are up at the hospital now and they are getting this sorted out once and for all.

 

[dabecs]

I hope right now a doctor is giving you answers! And hopefully it is something easily cured..

Planning a trip could help keep your mind off the pain and give you something to look forward to - even if you have to keep planning a bit longer and postpone the trip.

Being flexible is a great idea