Day 277: To Vacation or Not to Vacation

I haven't really had much to write regarding our debt pay off journey lately. Since making a large, lump sum payment on my rewards card and doing a balance transfer from my high interest cards to the rewards card, we've pretty much been on auto pilot. I will see a raise on my first pay in April, and my husband's employer recently told him that they are actually planning on issuing raises this year, after stagnant wages for the past three years. My husband is also receiving a bonus on his second paycheck of every month, based on performance, so we actually have more money coming in.

However, for every positive movement in our finances, there is a negative. We received notice from our insurance company that they are nearly tripling our deductible and they are increasing our annual premium between 20-25%. I am currently shopping our insurance to other companies to see if we can get better coverage or better rates, or possibly both. I'm hoping, since I work for an insurance company, that my employer will be able to provide me a better rate than what I've got now.

Also on the home front, I am submitting a request to our county tax auditor for them to re-evaluate our taxes for 2010, so I can hopefully reduce our annual payment on that. If our home value is going to decrease over 20%, I would like to see a similar change in our taxes. I need to take the paperwork and have it notarized today so I can put it in the mail this afternoon It has to be postmarked by 3/31.

The biggest possible hindrance to our financial goals is our desire to go on vacation this year. We're discussing a week long vacation at the end of May, which will likely cost us in the ball park of $1500-$2000 for the week. We hadn't really been planning on it up to this point, however I think that my husband and I are both at the point that we feel like we need a vacation. We probably don't need a $2000 vacation, but we do need to get away from here for a little bit and take a break from work. I am trying to plan ahead for the added expense and pay off as much of our credit cards as possible before we go, so I don't feel like it's as much of a setback.

Anyway, we are just chugging along. I will update later this month with our revised debt standing.