I hate, hate, hate doing this because it feels like I'm telling myself I've lost hope, but I have to do this to not feel so stressed. I'm talking about our once in a lifetime trip to Korea as a complete family. We may go, we may not. I've been mulling this over in my mind and on paper for the last few days and I just don't see any alternative. Going to Korea for 7 is not as simple as it may seem. \
First of all, finding a hotel room to accommodate 7 people together is near to impossible. I'm willing to split the adults up to find two separate rooms, but that definitely adds to the cost. Not to mention Korea's rules are stricter than here in the US where we can stay in a suite with 2 doubles and a fold out couch. They don't allow that in Korea. We finally found a decent place to stay that would only be $180/night...as of now. So we're figuring on $200/night just in case rates change.
Food's not a terrible worry, but even if you figure $50/day (cheap) you would be spending $6-700 over the 12-14 day stay. Which yeah, we could stay for a shorter time, but if you're going to fly for 14 hours you want to stay a bit. If anything it helps a little with jet lag.
Transportation within the country's not terrible either. We can get around on the subway and cabs for probably less than $500 the whole stay. Then, there's transportation to Gwangju and Jeju (their birth cities); that's another $1200 for both and a hotel stay at each if just some of us go. Like me and each child that was born in the city we were going to.
Airfare. Here's where I can't cut the cost at all. We're obligated to pay whatever the going rate is at the time for economy class tickets. So, if oil goes up, so does our airfare, which at a good June rate will be $1500/ticket if we're lucky. With 7 of us, the price of our family's airfare can fluctuate anywhere from $10,000 to $13,000 for all of us. There's not getting around this part. You can't just choose to drive or take another mode of transportation. This is the part that really stinks! We can afford to be in Korea, we just can't do the high end of airfare.
We've been planning for this since Kaelin was about 3 and told me she wanted to go together. Then we emptied the whopping $800 we had in the account to get Jaemin. I got serious and started saving $100/month after Jaemin came home two years ago. Then came my $250/month pay cut thanks to our stinky contractor who can't get us a better deal on health insurance. Due to that I had to go part time to afford my bills and get the kids out of daycare. And with all this went the $100/month I was saving for the trip. So, there we stand at $3,800 in our Korea account. If you added the above up, we're need about $17,000 to go. Only $13,200 short. Not bad huh? UGH! We have our regular savings and it has some in it, but you can't drain your savings to nothing with 5 school aged kids. We're already living paycheck to paycheck...literally. There's nowhere to go. Then, we have the potential that either we're going to have to fix our septic's drainfield or hook up to our city sewer. Either way it will cost about $3500. And Thursday after our 3rd orthodontic opinion Chase may still need braces. Poor kid has two permanent teeth coming out the side of his gums.
So, it's time I let myself down a bit. I was so psyched for this trip. It's not like I was completely doing it for Kaelin, Chelsi and Jaemin. I was planning it for our family. It's bonding. It's a special link for us. It's how we became a family. It's been important and driving me for years, but it's time to let go so that I don't let it's dream consume me.
The plan is to wait until next Winter when we had planned to start buying tickets or watching for decent fares to reevaluate. If things seem okay and maybe we manage to save some more we'll think a little more about it. Otherwise, each year it will get pushed back another year until we decide if we'll ever go at all. Really, you don't have forever. Cole will be 18 in just 4 years. One year he will have his heart surgery and that is how we'll spend our summer. So, all I can say is IF we go to Korea as a family it will be the best trip ever!
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