It’s finally here; by the time you read this I will be soaking up the sun in the Caribbean. That doesn’t sound very frugal, you say? It most certainly is! And it most certainly isn’t.

This week is my fifth wedding anniversary. Five years and three kids later, we are able to celebrate our wedding together. We have saved and planned so that we could enjoy this without worrying about money, about our budget. We paid upfront, in cash and saved for incidentals like new, post-baby-not-nursing clothes for this mama.

That’s the frugal part. We planned, we saved, we paid in cash for everything. So what went wrong?

This past week it feels like we’ve been losing money left and right. Lots of eating out because I didn’t want to deal with leftover food at the end of the week or lots of dishes from cooking as I was trying to clean and organize the house. Lots of last-minute running to the store for things we just didn’t think of. I found myself at the store not once but TWICE without a plan and without my coupons. It was so painful I almost didn’t make it.

Maybe if I traveled more I might have had some thoughts about how to make this more economical. Heck, maybe just being relaxed about the whole trip would have made it easier on our budget.

Even those of us who scrutinize our every penny spent have moments of weakness … or several moments of weakness in this case. I’m lucky that we have a small reserve set aside and that we have the trip itself paid for without any debt. When we get back next week we will just have to take stock of our situation … and tighten our belt and get back into a frugal mindset.

Unless, of course, I can find someone to serve me drinks while I lay by the inflatable pool in the backyard at home …