Pre-Holiday Planning

I'm about to head off on a three week overseas holiday. It's great to go on holidays, but then when you think about all the money you will be spending, well that's the upsetting part. It takes so long to save money and then it will all be GONE in a matter of weeks. Ah well, you have to enjoy life.

Going on holidays during this time of year is so expensive. Everything goes up in price from about 50% increase to a few hundred percent increase. This is the time that the tourism industry can make the most money and they definitely overcharge you just because they can.

In this trip, I will be going to Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. Initially I thought there would be places to stay in all these places, but it has turned out that a lot of friend's places are just too small for anymore people. This means that I will have to stay in hotels, so I have chosen the cheaper hotels. This means that the quality of the places are questionable, especially for someone like me who is used to so much space here in Melbourne. But it should be ok since last time in Hong Kong I basically just went back to the hotel to sleep.

Having to stay in hotels though has increased my expected money output by quite a lot. The trip is starting to get a lot more expensive, and thats before I've even stepped onto the plane. Luckily, I got an extremely good surprise yesterday that should ease the pressure on my wallet. After my mid financial year performance review, where I asked if it was likely that I would get a pay rise next end of financial year, I got an envelope from my manager. The envelope had CONFIDENTIAL stamped on it, always clearly a sign that its important. I opened it and found a letter that said my salary had been reviwed and that I would be getting a pay rise, w00t w00t. The pay rise was also quite good and was going to be back dated to July this year. This means I would get paid half a years worth of money in my next pay slip, just in time for me to take and spend on my holiday. So its been a great end to the week after being slightly stressed about running low on money to go on holidays. So Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore here I come, with a bit of money to spend as well. :-)