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

OP hasnt set out the circumstances, it would well be that she could trade it in for an advantageous situation and be quids in, in coming months

She asked a question, this is the answer, if you want holidays, then you need to cut back on something else.
If you dont want to cut back on something else, then you're not likely to have holidays (or not the ones she seems to want, others have made suggestions of camping and self catering UK)

Its not a criticism, is not judgement its just bald facts of financial priorities.

OP can take it or leave it.

You can have days out for nothing

Go for a long walk explore, go for a picnic, go to a free museum, go to parks and gardens that are free, go to nature reserves, get special offers at cinemas, use vouchers and points from supermarkets

No one needs to be spending 60 quid on a day out and for 3k I can have 3 holidays and so can OP

@Ht1 Your childcare bill is huge. Any chance you can both reduce hours to cover a day and save 20% of the £17k a year? That would
pay for your holiday? Thats what we did back when ours we small. But those years are brutal on finances as PP have said. We managed with one car for a while (was a pain but we did it). Also is your mortgage to interest only? If not maybe consider that until the childcare bill is reduced? I’m assuming your £1k left over each month your food bill btw? £600 for food and bills for 4 seems very low?

We haven’t flown for holidays since 2019 mainly due to cost. I have just booked a 11-night summer holiday in August - eurocamp for 4 of us in southern Netherlands for £2074 - this includes the ferry crossing with a car so maybe think along those lines?

Outside of school holidays in May/June/September, there are literally thousands of places that are less than £1K per week in the UK or abroad especially if you are 2 adults with a baby/toddler/ preschooler and only require one bedroom.

But then in a couple of years when her childcare fees are done she’ll be able to easily afford her cars and her holiday. She won’t need to sacrifice

OP isn’t a person who needs to have an awareness of money so she can live the life of a poor person. She isn’t a poor person.

it’s not the life lesson you think it is.

and many, many people are agreeing that £450 a month for two cars isn’t expensive.

It’s about awareness though. If OP plods through life thinking £450 is basically as cheap as it comes for 2 cars then she’s never going to have that much control over her money. She needs to understand what is a want and what is a need.
Then she needs to realise you can’t have all the wants on her income with no sacrifice. Often it’s either spending with no thought all month on days out, coffees, takeaways etc, or nice cars on finance or nice holidays.

Perhaps when her renewal comes up she will have more food for thought rather than automatically trading in for a more expensive car because that’s what people do.

Then you didn’t buy a cheap house in an area of high deprivation and unemployment did you ?!

It depends on what you want your holiday to be, when and how many there are of you.

There is quite a lot of choice in the uk under 1k. Blue stone, camping, haven, air bnb.
Euro camping would be worth looking into?
Going to Europe in a less busy month?

Your childcare bill is huge, it will be easier when you don't need to pay that.

I don’t understand why people keep saying this- how? What do you practically speaking, suggest she does?

they have 2 cars, £450 a month. Are you suggesting they sell them (likely lose loads there) repay the loans early (incurring early repayment fees) then buy another two cars on a NEW LOAN for £200 a month?

not forgetting, as above, you’re likely to have to lie about the purpose of the loan to get a loan over 5 years.

what exactly does that achieve?

There are lots of holidays for less than £3k if someone really wants to get some sunshine. You just have to lower your expectations.
We went on a cheapy holiday to Majorca once to a basic hotel. It was grest value for money. Think it was approx £1.2 k for a week sc. It had a small but lovely pool and was never as crowded as the 5 star hotels nearby. Yes it was basic but it was clean. My children loved it.

They must be living really far from thriving towns and cities, then? There’s loads of opportunities in my city centre and not everyone who works there lives in the ‘mumsnetty’ areas of the city.

OP I’m with you here, it’s depressing isn’t it? DH and I had menial jobs in our twenties, we went back to education late in life with the motivation to be able to live a little, a holiday once a year, a car, a decent size house. Fast forward to us now working our professional careers earning 90k between us and life is harder in many ways, the cost of living is just ridiculous at the moment and salaries have not caught up with it. We save, budget, buy most things secondhand and we still are down to our last pennies the end of the month. We’re grateful to be able to save but like you said, it gets wiped when something unexpected happens which is often. I don’t know what to tell you but only that I hope salaried go up and match inflation, naive of me huh?

You need to readdress the car situation - that’s the big one that seems like it can drop. A loan to buy two old/small cars would be a lot cheaper.

10k over 5 years would be about £200 a month, I think.

Even if she had no days out, assuming she saves £60 a week all year, that’s £3k. So she does nothing all year, then has to find a very cheap holiday at the end of it. Not to mention, she won’t have £3k until January 26 so no summer holiday for her.

we could not find a holiday for 2a 2c that we would want to go on for £3k.

Agree.
I've booked a week-long holiday cottage in Cornwall at Easter for £850. I paid a deposit, then £100 per month until paid for.
It's self-catering, which I prefer, and a spit from the beach.
You can do it OP.

I know quite a few people who live in these areas and unemployment is a terrible weight over their heads. They live with the knowledge they will struggle for another job and that there will be lack of opportunity for their children too. It’s really not that winning in life to cut off opportunity like that

Well you need to decide if a holiday or day trips are more important.. I'm not trying to be inflammatory in saying that but it's budgeting and making sacrifices.

We didn’t holiday abroad at all until youngest was about 5. Before then it was a long weekend in a nice hotel at the coast booked last minute when the weather forecast was good.

Regular savings when I get paid, drive an older car paid for outright. Very few days out. Good savings before having children and had children in our thirties.

I save and use credit card to spread the cost over a few months. I also only go away every other year.

Car loans or personal loans used for cars can’t be taken out over a long period of time- 3 years is usual. They depreciate too quickly for lenders to offer any longer.

I don’t think £450 a month for 2 cars is much at all. I have just taken out a loan for a car and the interest is 9%. A lot of people haven’t caught up with what’s been going on with interest rates in the last few years, reading these answers- ditto for the mortgage comments.
£350 mortgage would mean you owe less on your house than she does on her car 😂 hardly comparable.

i think OPs point is valid- you’d like to think people in her position could afford a holiday. Not having any trips out all year with young children in order to save for a camping holiday sounds miserable as hell. Lots of people don’t like those types of holiday either

Self-catering on holiday should cost the same as not being on holiday - surely? I mean, it's not an additional cost.

depends how often during the week you eat out. When im at home I don't eat out every week, but when im on a weeks holiday we will eat out possibly 3/4 times - which is more expensive. Fish and chips, a Sunday roast, pizza night, ice cream a couple of times. Obviously you can keep the price down by reducing this and getting a supermarket shop

Honestly I find uk holidays so expensive, including cost of activities, petrol, days out etc.

You might actually be better off going abroad. Especially while you aren't beholden to school holidays.

For example 5 nights half board in may in a decent 3 star in crete is £838 (£738 with the sale code for January) including flights, luggage and transfers and that's for 2 adults and a child over 2.

https://www.easyjet.com/en/holidays/greece/crete/agia-pelagia/pelagia-bay?ibf=true&to=27-05-2025&from=22-05-2025&dst=ALL&sAccId=&geog=ALL&flex=7&org=SOU,STN,LGW,LTN&aa=1&rooms=2_1:3&outId=Ef1214e58431956c67e2b4c0f73f2379e&inId=E7651adadfeda08845b32089f00912bfd&accId=X9180403&packId=2151577796/2/2694/5&boardType=HB&offerRooms=21:3/DBT.ST!NOR.TAILOR%20CONTRACT&transfer=GEMT54607KSS&dtransfer=GEMT54607KSS&isExt=1&lateRoomCheckout=0&theme=beach&ejhsort=hotelslist|3|XwbQOknP

anyone looking for inexpensive holidays in school holidays - then pick the last week of august as its often the cheapest and north devoid has some bargains - not as far to drive as Cornwall, so save some petrol and you have beach and the moors for entertainment - along with a lot of stuff costing ££££ to do on rainy days - but much of that can be done on Tesco club vouchers we found and taking picnics as we were self catering

Self-catering on holiday should cost the same as not being on holiday - surely? I mean, it's not an additional cost.