I got married at 21 years old and had three kids in quick succession shortly after. My husband and I spent the first few years of our marriage and parenthood making little money and drowning in bills. We rented small apartments, filled our bellies with beans and rice and thrifted literally everything.

When our eldest was 9, I went back to work full-time and quickly climbed the corporate ladder. Having extra cash felt like a dream come true. We bought a second car, a house with a mortgage we could now afford and had extra to renovate.

Then the economy tanked. We sold our second car and canceled our renovation plans. We went back to clipping coupons and I slipped into a deep depression. I worked two jobs and earned over six figures, but now our money went to an over-inflated mortgage and overpriced groceries.

A few months ago our family experienced an unexpected windfall. Our finances went from dire to extremely optimistic. We had the chance to really think about what we wanted to do with some of the extra cash.

We talked about saving the money for the kids education, putting some extra cash in our retirement funds or funding some of our much-needed home renovations. Instead, I booked a trip to Florida.

Why we chose to travel instead of saving for our kids education

Rather than depositing the money in our kids education fund, we planned a trip and left enough aside that we could plan more trips over the next few years. We decided to spend the next couple of years making up for lost time. I hadnt been on a plane in 13 years. Our kids, ages 12, 10, and 7, had never been on a plane.