Where should we go, when should we go, and how the heck are we going to get there? Well, lots of talking, debating, arguing finally brought us to a decision. Our daughter's plan to visit UK and Europe in 2010 had a bit to do with it, as hubby wanted to be there when his UK brother and sisters met our granddaughters for the first time. Daughter had a 5 year plan (had to be put off once or twice because of other priorities) to get the 5 of them to Europe for a 6 week holiday. After a lot of thought I came to the conclusion we could make it our "Bigtrip". 2009 would be the year of our 40th wedding anniversary, (yep, we actually managed to stay together that long!) and hubby's 60th birthday. Then 2010 would see me turning 60, too. What better way to celebrate these huge milestones than with a nice long holiday.

So the decision was made in 2005. We would travel to Europe in 2010 for 3 months. Yes, 3 months. Next step was to work out the budget.

I have to say at this point that hubby was never really convinced it would happen. Especially when I told him we would need between $14,000 and $17,000 for the 12 weeks we would be away. He almost laughed at me. I almost laughed at me, too. How the heck was I going to do this? It was only 4 years since I had been seriously ill and since I had finished work. It had taken me to this point to begin getting the finances in order. Now I was expecting the tight budget to tighten itself into frugality of the first order! This was going to be fun...