How do people pay for a holiday? Decent income and can’t afford it?

When ours were little we never paid for going out- walk in the countryside or trip to the park. Trips to a farm etc were a very rare treat. We saved around £200 pm for a UK cottage.

Childcare doesn’t last forever so that will give you much more cash when those years are over. £450 on two car payments is a lot, for context my take home is around yours and my car loan is £130 a month. You’ve clearly made some choices about expenditure here. You can also have cheaper days out, National Trust membership, free museums etc and take own food / drinks. It is about making choices if you need to save for something. Or just accept that during the nursery years holidays aren’t really an option.

Holiday cottages/caravans in the UK in school holidays can be found for less than 1k, there was a thread the other day about just this thing and OP said she couldnt find somewhere yet everyone who answered could!

Then you only have cost of food but if self catering this can be cheap and petrol to and from the location

Obviously you have high childcare which won’t be forever and your car is a big monthly costs.
We take home a bit less than you and we don’t budget each month as DH gets a small Christmas bonus which covers the holiday. However it would be the equivalent of you saving your car payment.
We run one car and we don’t have a payment on it.
We just paid £5.5k for a 5* half board holiday to a Greek island for 2 adults and 2 kids.
Our incomes are similar overall to yours when taking into account the bonus, it’s just a matter of priorities. You should be able to cover £1k staycation no bother.
I just paid almost that for 2 nights for DH’s birthday.
We also have 2 children in nursery full time.

We bought a touring caravan- cheap, second hand one- when our kids were small. Had many, many fabulous holidays in it all over the UK and to France and the most we've ever paid for a 2 week holiday is £600.
It's not for everyone, but we wouldn't have had half the holidays that we've had if we hadn't had it.

Cut back on days out and birthdays etc.

My household income is about the same as yours, as is mortgage, but my childcare is half.

Last year we stayed in a caravan in the UK for a week. Caravan was £1000, spent about £700 on activities, food and petrol.

This year we're contemplating a AI in spain for £3k for a week. tui 3*, free childplace and currently a discount sale on (which will effectively cover the extra we'll need to pay to sit together). We'll pay for airport parking but we probably won't spend more than £100 whilst we are away.

We won't have any other holidays this year. We only run one car. I wfh 4 days a week. Softplay etc are special treats not a weekly occurrence.

Well no. Again they either earn more or spend less. Ie lower mortgage costs, or no child care costs. Or they earn more. It really is not hard to comprehend,

We only started going abroad once we stopped paying creche fees . Looking at other families with toddlers I actually don't mind now that we missed those years. Keep doing the days out because little farm trips are what small children enjoy in my experience.
Hang in there.

We have similar income and housing costs to you. We have THREE dc but afford a couple of decent holidays a year, usually abroad, with relative ease.

We pay £0 per month for our two cars and our childcare bill is £100 a month.

It's not rocket science really.

People afford it by having money money and/or lower outgoings. Your outgoings are very high for your income. We are also in the nursery years, 2 Dc one at school one at nursery. We have a higher income than you, lower mortgage and lower nursery fees. You are also paying car payments for two cars which many families don’t do, they buy or have one car on finance. Once you’re out of the nursery years you’ll have more disposable income though.

Save £60 per month and have a uk holiday every 18 months or cut down on days out and make birthdays cheaper and have an UK annual holiday or go abroad every 18 months.

I usually look either a year before or at
The start of January and pay abit each month, depending on where you want to go etc we usually use tui or love holidays sometimes only about 100 a month

Income is similar here but zero child-care for 2 children as single earner family.
Mortgage is £1200. Cars fully paid for already (just normal bills like insurance and servicing etc). Bills around £1000.

Can afford a Eurocamp holiday and sometimes a nicer longer haul one

We had UK holidays only when paying for childcare. These were wonderful. When you aren’t paying childcare you’ll easily afford a holiday. I will say though that your budget is a bit vague. We write down everything, and I mean everything, we spend. Easy to see where you are wasting money. We also don’t have cars on finance. A lot of people wouldn’t be seen dead in my car but I don’t care. It means I’ve more money to spend on my house and on holidays.

Cut down on the days out through the year and set aside for a holiday.

Because we don’t pay for childcare or large car payments so have about an extra £2000 a month more than you. I would imagine that makes a big difference. When ours were little, we only really had camping holidays for a weekend.

Two things that stand out are you childcare bill and car payments. In comparison our bill is £250 and we don’t have car finance. in your situation that would free up £1000 giving loads for a holiday. I suspect childcare you can’t reduce but cars could be looked at.

It's the childcare. We had 6 holidays last year that totalled similar to your childcare bill.

Even though we earn more now we never upsized our flat! Happy living as family of 4 in a small 2 bed flat the foreseeable

got rid of the car before we don’t need one as live in the city

we have no commuting costs as we both cycle to work

managed to arrange it that we only need 3 days childcare - husband does a compressed week over 4 days and I only work 4 days at the moment so that saves loads

we prioritise holidays and put them ahead of everything else -we go on a lot of free days out and take our lunch and coffee with us to save money

I know people often say this on MN and it might be true in some cases, but often other people can just afford it due to different income and outgoings.

I don't pay childcare, mortgage is half yours and don't spend £1000 on petrol and days out.

Uk holidays? We earn well but with nursery fees we can only do holiday cottages, which, have all been so lovely and I feel mine are too young for an abroad holiday where me and my husband actually have a holiday too.
Some people will put it on a cc and pay it off I assume.

We're away at Easter and then again in August, August we split with family members so bigger property and a smaller amount to pay if that's an option.

You can book a holiday and pay monthly. Have one every other year? Don’t book AI?

If you look, you can get some deals. I follow “Seaside Travel Sacriston” on FB and they get some great deals, even during school holidays. (It’s a NE travel agency but you could still follow). Also if you saw a Jet2 holiday, they can beat the price.

I couldn't spend that kind of money when DS was in nursery and I was on a similar salary either.

But many cheaper options if you know where to look. The Sun Holidays is running at the moment where you can get accommodation for under £100. Butlins is around the same for Mon-Fri on a 'tots week' in Feb/March. It's cold, and not the standard I love, but still plenty of cheap and cheerful holiday activities. You can then look forward to 'nicer' holidays when you get out of the brutal nursery years!