Quandary

Go for it .
These days I feel so unwell that I can't contemplate a trip .

So pleased you decided to take the jump and book your trip Aveline.

We were invited by friends to go away for a ‘big’ wedding anniversary celebration- a trip on the Orient Express to Venice. I felt very conflicted - I knew that I could do a lot more with that amount of money and it seemed a crazy extravagance, although we could afford it. But we also felt that it was an honour to have been invited to share their special celebration.

When it came around, I absolutely did not regret one minute or one penny of the expense. From the moment we were picked up from the house in a chauffeur driven Mercedes, it was an amazing and unique experience. Truly a once in a lifetime trip. The train was full of lots of people like us celebrating special events. Everybody got into the spirit and wore their gladrags. Everything about the trip was wonderful and we made so many fantastic memories over just five days.

It did feel like a privilege - I know it would be out of reach for many people and I was grateful to be able to be there. I hope you come home feeling exactly the same about your own trip. Well done and have a wonderful time I’m sure we will all look forward to hearing about it in due course.

I recently inherited a lot of money after a life of being careful with my money;I’ve never been on the breadline and have always travelled etc but it has all been very carefully budgeted.
However, I’m now trying to learn to enjoy spending a bit! I bought stick on under cabinet lights for my kitchen - whilst debating whether I could spend £20 on lights 😆 I’m obviously getting better as have spontaneously booked a trip to India, so, OP, go on your trip and enjoy every minute!

My overriding thoughts - right from the start of this thread - is to definitely go (well done that you’ve now booked it!). There’s somewhere I really want to go to, the Far East, but DH won’t go with me as he doesn’t fancy the destination (but does support me fully if I want to go) and I can’t find a friend to accompany me either, so I may just go it alone - if I’m brave enough! So enjoy your trip - it sounds fabulous. As others have rightly said, we don’t know what’s around the corner, so enjoy things while you can. It’s miserable having regrets in life and we only get one life!

GolferGrandma

CARPE DIEM
Always been my motto and glad I lived by it! Many cruises and holidays until middle of 2025 - THEN hit by the absolutely worst diagnosis, out of the blue, 2 x terminal cancers, along with a Nephroscopy (kidney drain) which is an added burden,
Nothing to look forward to now. Pkease heed all the advice, and DO IT NOW.

I'm sorry to read about your 'out of the blue' diagnoses. That must have been a huge shock.

Before I retired at 70, I worked with doctors and a young doctor at my leaving do, said Enjoy yourself before things start going wrong. I was quite taken aback, but now 7 years later, I fully understand what he meant.

We must Carpe Diem.

I know the feeling I cannot stop myself saving every month and gleefully adding up all my banks accounts . I am in my 80s and do not have to worry about bills being paid but still I save. I thought to-day all I am doing is adding to the money I will leave to my granchildren whom I rarely see . Sadly we have left it too late to enjoy the kind of holiday I would love to go on .

CARPE DIEM
Always been my motto and glad I lived by it! Many cruises and holidays until middle of 2025 - THEN hit by the absolutely worst diagnosis, out of the blue, 2 x terminal cancers, along with a Nephroscopy (kidney drain) which is an added burden,
Nothing to look forward to now. Pkease heed all the advice, and DO IT NOW.

Don’t forget to buy the pink fountain pen and pink leather journal before you go (speaking personally here, you understand! )

Something to look forward to! Lovely.

Not till August. Wee trip with DH first though.

Aveline

I have already come back to this thread with an update.

I think you’re ’talking to the hand’, *Aveline, or several in this case!

When are you off on your adventure? Will you be escaping this never-ending winter?

Careful with money…. Surely you’re able to do both, if your careful with money I’d assume it won’t leave you broke if you go.
Build memories.

I have already come back to this thread with an update.

I have often demurred and now regret every time I did not go.

So I would say, you can afford it so GO GO GO and then come back to this thread with all the great memories, please

Go. If you're fit enough and can afford it. Otherwise you'll live to regret it.

What happened in life to make you feel unworthy to spend money on yourself? Why does money have such a hold on you when it’s just paper (?) with a number on it. Money is just a commodity to swap for things that you’d like.
What are you saving the money for? A holiday? That you’ll never go on?
Go!! You’ll have an amazing time and make so many memories to look back on.

The money the other travel agent saved me is enough to pay for another smaller holiday for DH and myself. Thank goodness I checked the other travel agent.

I had a similar issue recently. To go for a quite pricey cruise or not. I decided against it in the end because I figured out for the same price I could have 4 mini breaks in the UK. (Or a new car!) Just ask yourself what else you could spend the money on. If the trip keeps coming top of your list then go for it!

If the only thing holding you back is the money, and you can afford it ,then go for it and have an amazing time. Life can be very short.

The various and quite expensive holidays we took in retirement have provided me with memories (and photographs) to look back on and remember DH at his very best. No money in the bank could equal that.

Oh, Aveline! That’s wonderful! 🐘 🦒 🦁 🦛 🦏 🐧

I’m tempted to invite myself along on your trip. My dad was born in S Africa and I would very much like to visit where he was born and his S African family lived. It’s not possible for me to do it currently but I still hold out the hope I’ll do it one day.

As it is, we went to Australia in 2019. I’d long wanted to go and then my sister died after a 3month illness. I asked myself what I was waiting for. We had a fabulous time and absolutely no regrets, especially as the pandemic broke out a few months later and no one went where for so long.

Bon voyage! 🧳 👒 🗺️ 🍸

Well done Aveline, you can't take your money with you, you just need to seize the day & enjoy yourself!!

Oh, I see you’ve made the booking Aveline. Well done. I’m sure you won’t regret it 😄.

Aveline

Thank you all for your encouragement. I'm just used to being 'careful' with money and not being extravagant. I'm asking myself how I'd feel if I didn't go. I'm still not sure. I suppose I could console myself thinking how much I'd saved!

Well, yes, I suppose you could console yourself on how much you’d saved, but ask yourself, what would you do with what you’d saved - would it go to something you desperately need or would it just sit in your bank account “for a rainy day”?

(Maybe the trip is that rainy day).

I really do think that if you can afford this trip, would really love to do the trip and would regret not doing the trip, then you really should go ahead and do the trip.

Only you know deep down what is holding you back, and once you’re brought that into the open (I mean to yourself, not on here), can you then decide what to do.

I really understand Aveline, having always lived frugally in the past, and hesitating to spend hard saved money on expensive things, but now is the time, because none of us are getting any younger. Enjoy yourself , and tell us all about it on your return.