planning expenses in times of economic uncertainty

At the moment I'm feeling fairly unstable in my career - fortunately my wife's is reliable at the moment.

While our finances have improved and we're trying to eliminate a credit card debt that has crept up, here recent raise and mine earlier in the year made a positive impact.

Recently we've begun thinking about larger expenses:

1. holiday / vacation to a warm beach somewhere
2. possible wedding in europe for a family member
3. replacing some exercise equipment

Although the above are not huge, the family vacation can certainly be expensive. As my wife puts it, if i'm working like crazy - what do i have to look forward to? I told her financial ruin if we don't plan expenses carefully - she didn't like that. Once the second house is finally sold, we'll be far more able to examine vacations.

Until then, I've asked her to find the cheapest safest thing possible - apparently the popular mexican resorts are seeing 2/3 decline in occupancy and the dollar has significantly appreciated in portions of europe.

Now all I need to do is remain continuously employed with my current firm or an alternate to help fund the holiday. After all - who wants to pay for a vacation with long term savings?

i'll share what comes up.

Regards,
makingourway