When dealing with the government, double it

I have been appling for my wife to come to the US and I originally was told that the process would take three months. I checked up on our application last week and found out that it will be five months. The five months is only for the immigration side of it. The state department has another three month processing time. Its all a big pain in the ass.

So, I booked two flights to go to France. One is in October, and the other is over Christmas. I promised Natacha that we would not spend a Christmas apart. The flights cost $2,200 altogether which is not too bad. It will definitely put a hit on my debt reduction for a few months. It will be nice to see my wife and spend some quality time with her. I miss her very much.

As for my debt reduction plan, I am going to pay $1,000 from my first pay check towards a specific credit card (right now its Bank of America). On my second pay check, I will pay $350 towards my American Express and $650 to my HiltonHonors card. That will pay off the Amex, which I want to do every month. In September, I will repeat the process but apply the full $1,000 from the second pay check to my HiltonHonors card. I also have some extra money from my travel for work so that will help. Once the HiltonHonors is zero, I'll put the $1,000 back into the reduction plan, which should be around November.