Saving or Spending? What shall I do?

I am one of life's savers, to the extent that I probably deny myself things I could afford because I would rather have the security of some money in the bank (or the ISA). I too overpaid my mortgage until it was finished with.

So bear this in mind when I say, yes, it would be a lovely surprise to spend on a holiday for you and your H. I paid for our honeymoon, so I get where you are coming from.

My only reservation would be as long as he doesn't expect you to continue to pay for things so he doesn't have to bother.

Or go on a cheaper (but still fab) holiday and wait for the big one until H can contribute too.

I spend, spend, spend. Live each day like its my last, could get hit by a bus or something tomorrow and you cant take it with you when I die, so might as well enjoy it.

He won't expect it from me in the future, in fact he'd tell me off!

We have a weird set up at the mo where he pays for his mortgage, insurance, Sky, phone, etc and won't change his mind on that as he "bought the house when it was just him so why should I pay towards his stuff?" I pay half the bills like electric and water, and we have a joint account for food bills, nights out tonight, etc. I then put £500/month (or whatever extra I have) into my savings - firstly to pay for the wedding and then for the house deposit.

Once we move all bills/mortgage will come out of the joint account, which we'll put a set amount in. I earn more than him, so have more money which can be disposable (hence why I'd like to treat us).

Of course, the other thing is that despite my current studying/new job, my body clock is nagging at me that I might not be able to go on nice holibobs in a few years!

Have a holiday Nursey!

Hmmm... Good point! ? But what if I don't get hit by said bus and realise that I can't afford whatever our new (non-existent) house needs? ?

Probably not the most sensible solution but I would spend it without a second thought ?

I'm probably somewhere in between. I'm a saver, but I also believe in enjoying life. If I want to go out for dinner or go for a weekend away I will, but I'm not a big shopper so I don't waste my money on tat. I think it's important to make sure you have some rainy day savings, but also to make sure you enjoy life while you can. So the summary of my long winded answer is, I would book the holiday. It's not like it would put you in any kind of financial difficulty, and I think it's worth it to be able to treat yourselves.

Holiday - and save later

Cross that bridge if/when you come to it! ha

I've never been sensible with money, I'm awful, however I wouldn't hesitate to give you my advice on this one because you've said about your body clock ticking etc and other things I've seen you write with regards to that, I think it would be best for you to get the holiday now then you can be sensible later and start your little family ?

Ooh, and another plus for the holiday is that it'll be in between 2 exams and I'll need to destress!

If I book before 31st October, we get a free upgrade, so think I'll book it tomorrow. You have all been wonderful! Thank you so much for convincing me! ?

Now, do I tell H or not? ?

I think ANY kind of holiday always costs at least 1.5-2K so you may as well spend the £4K on the one you want if you have the money. But then I like holidays - and would always chose to spend money on them rather than say a new sofa (unless we really needed a new sofa IYSWIM).

Have the holiday - when/if you have kids you wont be able to afford big blow out holidays so do it whilst you can

Good grief...you must have very posh holidays. I know our usual hols don't cost anythink LIKE £1.5K.

Even our (IMO) rather flash honeymoon was way short of the £4K for Nursey's bash.

Go on the holiday!

I haven't been abroad since before I had my second child - he's going to be four next week!

As long as your not leaving yourself brassic then I see no question!

I would suprise him btw ?

This is 100% me and it drives my H mental !!! I just dont see the point in saving for nothing in particular !

I do save for holidays though and have a second job just to pay for holidays and tend to go on 2-3 a year if I can, this year and next I have been/am going on 4 !

Like others have said you can always carry on saving afterwards and you may not get the option when children come along !

I spend spend spend. But did run up a shed load of debt this way and only got out of it within the last few years so now do think purchases through first. OH is a saver and being with him has made me alter my spending habits. However in your situ, I would go for it and surprise him, particularly as you know he wanted it as well, it's not like you're springing a trip on him randomly that you don't know he ever wanted. And the upgrade is even more of a sign that you should do it!

Good grief, don't hold back on being judgmental. Sadly we don't have posh holidays as we don't have the money for them right now. This summer we're sharing a holiday cottage for a week in Cornwall which will be £650 per family. Then there is travel to get there which will be petrol and one night each way in a Premier Inn - that that's another £300 approx. And then being away and having to buy groceries, meals, days out, activities etc always works out at least £50 per day so I budget for £400 for the week for that (actually 9 nights away with the Premier Inns en route). All in all I think will be about £1.4K and that is just a week in an ordinary holiday cottage in the UK.

This summer, we spent about £1.5K all in going to Scotland for 10 days. But we had some PPI money back and decided to spend it on a holiday we wanted before the new baby arrived.

If you have any suggestions about how to have a nice holiday any cheaper then please do share.

I'm definitely a spender. Lucky for me, hubby is one of life's savers!

Ah well there we are then... our holiday this year was a week in a caravan in Cornwall...and I drove through the night to avoid having to do a stop over. We spend a lot of time on the beach or walking which is free....

It's quite difficult to out-cheap me!! ?

Ha!

Our abroad holidays only cost us about £600 for two weeks (for both of us, not each). We go to my parents place in Spain but we also go with them. Mainly because we don't speak Spanish, they do, and it's an entirely Spanish area, but also because we can share the cost of car hire and they tend to buy all the wine!

Ah, if only. We used to have a house near Santa Pola. Then my parents decided that instead of keeping us in cheap holidays for the forseeable future, they would sell it at the peak of the Spanish property bubble, pay off their mortgage here and bank tens of thousands to keep them in their dotage.

Some have called it sensible. I call it selfish

Haha yes, my parents waited too long and now can't sell it without making a substantial loss. Rubbish for them to be fair but I get cheap holidays!

Apart from my 2 days in Ibiza in July, my last holiday was a week driving up to Scotland and 2 days in Spain at my dads in August! I'm so desperate for a holiday but all our money is tied up in house stuffs. Most we had spent on a holiday prior to honeymoon was £500, plus spending money of a few hundred, always last minute deals!

I try and save as much as I can but lately our essential outgoings have been coming close to our incomings. If I was you I'd spend half and save half.

I'm saver, but also like you have the whole bambinos in the furture in my mind, so if I was you I would save half and enjoy the other half.

See, this is our normal type of holiday ? Out in our campervan exploring! We don't usually do hotels or abroad. Our most exotic holiday excluding HM was driving to Belgium for the F1 but even then we were camping. Our HM was going to be just 4 nights away in a hotel in Devon, but I had a bit left in our budget so I organised for us to go to Germany for 3 nights

This is the most extravagent holiday we're ever likely to do for a loooooong time. That is why I must do it!

I'm definately an over-cautious saver. We too have a pool of "just in case cash" and won't buy without consulting the bank account, won't even buy on finance, will go without to save etc.

I see you've decide to book - yaaaay!! In your situation, i'd spend it too. We had a huge blow out cash wise on our honeymoon knowing we were coming back, 3 weeks later H was off to Afghan, and we wanted kids ASAP after tour.. Now, if we'd not had the holiday, and after finding we were lucky enough to get our wish, and that I was indeed pregnant 2 weeks after H's return, i'd be gutted if we'd not had that time for us. We'll never do it again (or at least not for 16 years) and so IMO every penny was well spent. Nothing would have stopped us going this summer while I was pregnant (well, other than the hurrendous sickness) but I wouldn't have been able to justify spending that cash anymore (and couldn't have swam with the dolphins pregnant ?).

Spend it. We want one more big mountaineering expedition before kids, cost about £8k. We have sod all in joint savings, but I have £8k in sole, plus about £10k to come when I close my business, and £10k when I sell my house. So I'll probably pay for it all just to get things moving. J earns way more than I do and pays way more into joint account. I am asset rich but cash poor, so if it's my assets that pay for the good times, so be it.

This is so true!

Well, deposit has been paid (total less than 4K in the end) so thank you all for you advice.

H did tell me off when he realised what I was doing and is insisting on doing overtime...