Is this a lost cause?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

"He is seeking employment, and I am currently employed full time, making about $17,000 a year from that job. (Blah!) However, I generally have extra income because of the fact that his family is so generous and is constantly feeding us, haha. Also, I have a photography side business."

"We're planning a European cruise for our honeymoon, ......"  Problem: To book and secure the cruise, we need to lay about $3000 down. The cruise is about $5200, EVERYTHING including fights, gratuities, transfers, insurance ... everything, included. But to book it, we have to put $500 down and purchase plane tickets. 

Our wedding is May 15th, and we'd leave for the honeymoon May 19th. The $3000 needs to be done soon (like, within this month if we can) and the rest of it needs to be paid by March.

Where the heck can I go to get this kind of loan/credit? Does any one here have any suggestions?  If your score is correct, I doubt that you will find one.

PPS - Also, my car is paid in full and worth just over $4000, if that means anything."   I wouldn't even consider refinancing your car.  You'd be trading one debt for another.

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Melissa,

I hope you are able to resolve the problems quickly regarding the bad CC's.  That said.......... 

I too will try to discourage you from pursuing this.   You're both young and just starting out.  Europe has been there a long time and it'll still be there when you're better financially able to go.  There's nothing more troubling in a marriage than money troubles.   I am assuming that the 5200 you quoted as being the "full price" is the cost of the trip including only the things you mentioned.  If not, are you aware that you will also be paying for sodas or drinks on the ship?  There are many extras!  A bottle of wine with dinner, a drink by the pool..?  All extra. 

And if you're traveling on one of the commonly used cruise lines here in the states you'll have to have a credit card on file with the ship.  I don't know of any that will accept cash for payment any longer.  Have you planned any tours for any of the cities you'll be visiting?  A special meal in the city?  Today, you'd pay 167.58 USD for 100 British Pounds. (GBP) and 149.89 for 100 Euro.   And don't think for a minute that things are cheaper there.  They aren't!  (It's been several years ago but we paid the equivilant of 150.00 USD for dinner for 4 that we could get here for around 50.00, and to put this in perspective, I just checked out the price of a pair of 501's in the UK.  127.40 USD!

If you're determined to have a Honeymoon cruise, have you considered a caribbean cruise?  You could do it much cheaper and save up for the trip of your dreams.  The best things are yet to come, and worth waiting for.  My advice?  Don't put yourselves in hock this early in the game!

Wishing you luck with whatever you decide to do.

D-R

[llecs]

OP, to echo others: don't do it. Save up the money first and have it in hand before committing to anything.

I understand how you feel too. DW and I went on a honeymoon cruise to Europe. I'm not going to lie to you: it was fun. However, we went down the same path you did by committing to something we didn't have the funds for and with a few monkey wrenches tossed in our path, we almost didn't go and almost lost our deposit money ($5000 or so).

We planned a year in advance. We already set the date. DW was a student at the time and didn't work but I saved every dime for the wedding and honeymoon. A year out, we budgeted for the rest of the year, knew how much we had already saved, and made a decision to commit to a cruise we couldn't really afford: a $40,000 3-week cruise.

Our credit was shot (thankfully) and knew we'd have to pay cash. A year out, we plopped down $5000 and began making payments every quarter in the tune of $13,000. We knew we were in trouble when we had to dip into savings to cover the first payment. My income was increasing, but it wasn't increasing fast enough. Six months out I had to make another payment and could only come up with half. The agent was cool and said we could float the remaining and pay $18k or so at the end, 3 months out from the cruise. Despite our efforts, we were on the way to visiting Disney or the Grand Canyon instead. There was no way we could make that last payment.

To complicate things, DW's parents promised to fund 100% of the wedding if they signed the contracts and deals with the wedding planner, church, reception place, cake people, etc. We appreciated the gift and let them run the show. Well, they signed contracts they couldn't afford, and it came time about three months out where they couldn't make the payments. Since we were locked in some contracts, cancelling meant we'd lose the money. So, I used my income to fund the wedding. We weren't expecting that. So, it came time to make the last payment and we go over to the cruise people to fess up. Gut wrenching moment. We prayed for a miracle, though.

We walked into the office and everyone had a long face as they greeted us. A miracle happened. Holland America cancelled our cruise because they had to reposition our boat for a different cruise. They offered to refund 100% of what we had put in or we could accept their counter-offer. The counter offer was to give us a shorter cruise (about 2 weeks), and to offer that cruise at 50% off. Instead of a simple cabin, they offered to upgrade us to a suite, pay for air fare, and added a couple of extra freebies like a limo ride to the airport, a free night in Venice, a honeymoon package, a behind the scene's tour of the ship, and a chef package where we got to hang with the chef at the chef's table for a meal. The price equalled exactly what we had already paid and we leapt at the chance.

If we had it to do over........and knowing that the cancellation was one in a million, then we'd pay for the cruise in cash (like we had done) and we would have only committed to the cruise if we already had the money set aside.

There were several expenses we failed to account for. It seemed like our personal expenses, like everyday bills and utilities increased at that time. We thought that our income would be higher, but it wasn't. We never dreamed that we'd have to fork out extra money for the wedding. It's amazing how many last minute charges you'll have to pay like hairstyling, last sec. repairs to a dress, flowers, unrealized charges for this or that, paying the organist or piano player, and so on. The charges really add up. Assuming you went on the cruise, you do have to pay extra money for food (when not on ship), hotels, shore excursions cost extra, taxi or bus fees when on land, last minute purchases (e.g. electric converters, clothes, cameras, digital cards, currency fees, etc.), etc. And finally, your budgeting can get sidelined between now and then like job changes, holiday budget, life's events, etc.

To echo others: don't do it. Someone already said it....Europe will always be there. This isn't a once-in-a-lifetime trip if you are determined to go.

[Anonymous]

Appreciated, O6.

I'm really not trying to be irresponsible. I believe it'd be irresponsible if I was unemployed, had no assets, and no means by which to pay it back. It's not like I'm trying to buy a computer when I already have one, just because I want to keep up with the Joneses, or a new wardrobe or cosmetic surgery, or anything along those lines. Then again, our opinions are all going to be different ... and I'm not going to ruin my credit for this ... if that was an undeniable consequence, then I wouldn't have even posted this.

Thanks, still.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for that insight llecs, as well as the poster before you.

That's the kind of thing I wanted to hear, really ... some good personal experiences.

As it stands, we're thinking of pushing it back to November, when we have all the gift money in cash, and then paying for another cruise that's later, in full. In the meantime, we'll drive the 4 hours to Chicago and see a play or something ... we really do just want that alone time together, after all the hustle and bustle of the wedding.

Thank you again. There are a lot of options to be laid out and I know we're going to work hard to find the right one.

[Anonymous]

Melissa,

I commend your passion and confidence in your abilities to provide and make this honeymoon happen.

I could say "don't do it" because of my own experiences, I could say "go to it, and enjoy" because of my own wonderful memories, but what I'm going to ask you to think about is just this....

You cannot guarantee. 

Heaven forbid any of the following, a car accident (not reconciled overnight - even with insurance) a serious illness/medical issue with you, your fiance, or an immediate family member that until that moment has been so generous to you both, layoff at work, hour cut backs, car breaking down, etc.

Our nest egg, that started out puny, gave us peace of mind, and helped us endure unforseen hardships that would have otherwise crippled us financially.

Start there, with the financial foundation for your marriage to stand on, that way when you go on your honeymoon - you can concentrate on enjoying it.

Congratulations to you both and all the best on your future together.

[RyVision]

I ran across this thread while looking for something else. I'm so shocked I don't remember what it was..........

It's been over a year and no update from Melissa. I wish she had returned at some point and informed the board as to what she ended up doing, how it went and how they are now.  I'm rather glad I wasn't around to see this back when she posted it, I would have been begging her to consider just using some of  their cash on hand to do something a bit (ok,a lot) less expensive and save what was left over for a future vacation\honeymoon.

Do people really consider taking a 5000$ honeymoon while attending college, on deffered student loans while owing other bills they're paying 50$ per paycheck towards? Then looking at the future toward MORE student loans?  Actually, it kind of ticks me off. For years (15 or so) I wondered where these younger people (not just 20's but up into 40's like me now) got the money to drive 40k$ cars, live in homes their grandparents couldn't imagine owning barring some huge windfall, and all the rest, you get the idea... I thought I was failing when young because I didn't have such things. I found out, they didn't have the money to have such things...  I was actually doing just fine the entire time. i was brought up a saver, only spend about a third of what you make unless it's to make money with (that was when I was a kid, but I had enough to buy my own used first car cash when I turned 14, and it was in perfect condition with 61k on it, 1 owner).  Friends were shocked my parents bought me a car, I told them they didn't, they LET me buy my own, only because they decided I would be responsible enough with it for them to allow it, they did pay half the insurance though, 300 or so a year. Friends later went out and got loans for cars, went to college, partied like rock stars, dropped out of college, some turned it around, some didn't. Some are still paying on student loans, over 20 years later.....     I think this is why the banking industry had such an easy time of fleecing so many. And why things are in such a mess now. 

If someone in this situation or something similar comes across this, please read all the posts for this thread. Esp if you have or may have to get student loans. Live cheap until you can pay cash to live large. Please? For your own sake?

I hope everything turned out alright for Melissa, maybe they reconsidered, maybe they read the other posts and thought it out. I can only hope.

[Shogun]

This is an old thread that was dug up but found myself reading it as well.  It's a difference of opinions and priorities.  What might seem right for one doesn't seem right to another.   My personal stance is my cell phone is screwed up, touch screen not working.   Can't bring myself to buy a new one, $150 because I'd prefer to throw that money on a bill.  Just my mindset I guess, and I make $122,000 a year.   But I guess it's the YMMV thing kicking in again.

[Anonymous]

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@Shogun wrote:

This is an old thread that was dug up but found myself reading it as well.  It's a difference of opinions and priorities.  What might seem right for one doesn't seem right to another.   My personal stance is my cell phone is screwed up, touch screen not working.   Can't bring myself to buy a new one, $150 because I'd prefer to throw that money on a bill.  Just my mindset I guess, and I make $122,000 a year.   But I guess it's the YMMV thing kicking in again.

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Funny you should say that...My droid just fell in water last Thursday and it is RUINED but I refuse to buy another phone because I'm waiting on the repsonses from a couple PFD's I just sent out

[Anonymous]

At the age of 25 my cell phone is my LIFE !!! LOL! But it's for my own good.

[Shogun]

Actually don't mind my phone being screwed up.  It's a plausibe deniablility thing when someone is texting or calling.  Sorry, didn't get that, phone is screwed up.