Money, money, money

Yesterday I had a very depressing and discouraging day in regards to the Scotland trip.

The fact of the matter is that we don't have $1,600 to spend all at once on the plane tickets - so I decided to open a Discover card. The card's limit wasn't enough for us to put the entire cost of the plane tickets on it - and that started a lot of my woes. I'm so disappointed in myself in regards to my credit right now. I keep trying to make it better but I know that one $60 Verizon bill is going to haunt me for a very long time. I also know that I have too many credit cards and I need to just combine them and get rid of half. I feel I manage my balances pretty well though, so it frustrates me to know that me having too many - even if they aren't in trouble - is backfiring.

Moving on. So I decided I would just put as much as I could on the Discover card and then the rest we'll pay out of our savings. Then I go to the Aer Lingus site and I see that they - like many - do not accept Discover cards. Argh! So I called and canceled that card and tried to open an America Express card. I don't know what I was thinking with that move. American Express has some pretty high standards - so of course I was declined for that. Instantly I regretted closing the Discover card and also applying for the American Express card. I'm not stupid and yet I did a very stupid thing. I had been making too many inquires within a 12 month period on top of credit that is not perfect to begin with. It's a never ending circle and that frustrates me so much!

So last night was pretty hard and I became very discouraged about the whole trip. I thought to myself maybe we shouldn't do this at all if we can't do it the way I want to. Maybe we shouldn't do it because of the cost. Maybe we shouldn't do it because of the stress!

This morning I'm in a much more optimistic mood. I've realized that I'll just reopen the Discover card (they said I had a period of seven days to reopen it), transfer some of my balances from my other cards onto the Discover (enjoy the 0% APR for the first year!), use the space on the other cards that are accepted by Aer Lingus and then use our savings as I had already planned.

This is going to work out. We're going to Scotland, even if its only for a week rather than two. I'm not going to ruin my credit anymore than it already it is with this trip. I'm going to pay off the Discover card long before my one year of 0% APR is up and I'm going to make it work for me!