How the fuck can people afford to go on holiday?

3 children are expensive.

Also we usually book stuff separately. Flight first as it easier to find accommodation in budget. If we see cheap flights we snap them up and worry about accommodation later.

Not sure what an okish wages is. I gues not a lot if you don’t have disposable income.

Lots of people have higher salaries
People shop around, make compromises
Don’t worry and just get in debt
Prioritise vacations above other things.

We planned ahead, do self catering, cook at home and eat out sometimes, carry lunch; rent a car and explore the place. Still spend quite a bit

1. We both work full time.
2. We earn well above average
3. We save up every month
4. We go camping in the uk or plan our own holiday involving channel tunnel or a cheap ferry, and a french gite away from the coast.
5. We go out of season for example april or october.

Flying adds a huge amount to the cost and packages with all inclusive are expensive.

Almost all our family holidays have been in the UK, and staying in youth hostels, camping, glamping or Premier Inns.

We've had a few city breaks in the uk and abroad (York, Belfast, Edinburgh, Njce, Paris,,Copenhagen), but it's only now that we have paid off the mortgage that we have started to have long holidays abroad. DH and I are late 40s/50s, dc are teens.

We never chose to pursue the Tui beach holiday fortnight. Nothing about these types of holiday ever really appealed .

Last minute deals are good, out of season is good. I assume you need to go in school holidays? That makes it expensive.
also though I thought we earnt ok/good money but have recently learned we seem to be at the lower end- hence why our friends have these holidays and I’ve always wondered how (friends that constantly plead poverty and ask for freebies)

I never holidayed ever with my mum when I was a kid. Couldn't afford anything.

We don’t. Have 3 kids, two decent wages but the cost / benefit doesn’t add up for us. We have done self catering uk holidays for a week in the past; this year not even that. As others have said: it’s different priorities.

We usually book well in advance so we can spread the cost. Usually at least a year in advance

I used to save all my expenses for work into a separate account (usually about 2k) over the year it paid for our annual holiday - that was 15-20 years ago though

I think this is really the crux of it. Save what money you can. I have standing orders set up saving for different things currently. It means the money is out of reach so it cannot be spent on frivolous stuff.

We just returned from 10 days in Majorca. 2 adults 2 kids. Kids are 10 (free child place) and 1.5 (under 2s are free) the holiday cost £2250 half board and we booked it last March for this June. We paid the £250 as a deposit and then it was about £140 a month in instalments. It was technically a honeymoon as we got married a few days before and everybody gave us money/euros so we only actually spent about £100 of our own money.

This is just an example of to an outsider it maybe looked quite extravagant (it was a very nice hotel) but in reality we only had to pay for 2 places, and was very gratefully gifted spending money.

No holidays next year - we are now saving for a driving holiday in Italy in summer 2025 before DS1 starts secondary school.

These threads are always the same though, how can you not grasp that other people have more money?

They either earn more than you, spend less or a combination of both.

Last few years we’ve paid silly money, not sure how much longer the DCs will go with us so is on a “now or never” basis. Before then we always
went camping, usually drove/ferry. Main cost was
cost of pitch (small parks with at most swimming pool, usually from the “Cool Camping” website), fuel and ferry (the latter cheapest if crossing at Calais). We cooked mainly at the campsite so the eating side of things wasn’t any more than we’d have been paying at home anyway.

meant to say, for city breaks etc I book via booking.com or similar which doesn’t take payment until check in or a few weeks before it. Or stay premier inn/novotel type places and use cashback sites where applicable. I’ve had a preschooler up until now so not stuck with school term dates and like early june the best. DD starting school so will either take out a week at end of term, or go the first two weeks of scottish holidays before the english holidays start and prices skyrocket. I alternate what time of year we go away e.g. The years we have family visit in the summer we don’t don’t go abroad in summer but may do winter holiday which gives over a year to pay it off from when i book it the previous summer. Takes a lot of planning but I have a system worked out hopefully, unless there is another cost of living crisis then holidays will stop being a regular thing. I love travelling so prioritise this over expensive hobbies etc.

Exactly this, our house is a bit rag tag, I drive and old banger, I dont have any self care stuff or high maintenance things apart from hair cuts (no nails, no treatments, no make up unless you count stuff from primark and home bargains and stuff I have had for years), I dont buy fancy branded foods.

Holidays are my priority, I would rather starve than not go away several times a year. My eyes are popping out at some of the costs here for just one holiday, I spend that per year but on several holidays because I spend a huge amount of time researching and comparing what I can get.

This is what we did as a child and once my kids are at school we’ll be doing it too. Always had great fun as a kid and my mum used to let me pick out campsites with amazing swimming pools.

We've camped in France or other parts of Europe.

It's not too bad on a European campsite. And you get decent pools, bars etc.

Plus we always self cater which helps

To me a “decent” wage and a low mortgage should be able to save 4k towards a holiday but obviously I’m using my own bias as to what you actually mean by decent wage with low bills.

DH and I have decent salaries, nothing crazy for where we are and high outgoings in terms of nursery but our bills and mortgage are low.
We save throughout the year for big purchases or holidays.

Yes and I am in Scotland where I think we have access to less airports (and therefore deals) than some parts of England

We booked Tenerife july 25th 2025
2 adults 2 children
Half board
Playa de las America
£2500

That’s paying off over £600 a month though! OP it seems to me as well that everyone is going abroad but in reality they can’t be if this is the cost.
We’ve not really done foreign holidays as a family - France twice but otherwise UK/camping. We’ve just completed some building work so that has been prioritised recently, but even before we didn’t really have the cash to spend £1000 per person on a holiday. YANBU

I've had amazing bargains booking very last minute over the years.

We book 18 - 24 months in advance with jet2 and pay in installments for an overseas trip.

Mostly though we camp no more than 1hr away from home.

• 2 working parents or one high wage earner
• fewer children
• booking holiday way in advance so they’re cheaper
• term time holiday
• saving all year
• prioritise a holiday over other things
• or they don’t