To be fed up of being on a good income but always skint?

I think she's saying that she couldn't possibly stoop to going on the kind of holidays that us commoners enjoy and that on her superior salary she should be shielded from the impacts of the cost of living crisis and free to fritter money on whatever extravagances she chooses, while public services decay due to insufficient investment and us commoners struggle to put food on the table - after all if we had just made better choices in life we would also be able to swan about in five star all inclusive resorts. I assume that's kind of what she's really saying anyway.

No, not that self catering isn’t holiday

an apartment in Spain isn’t a holiday. The holiday includes the costs of flying there and spending money. Me booking a €400 flat for 2 weeks doesn’t make a holiday

The apartment is very nice. It has a balcony.

Self catering is not a holiday? Well just because meals are not included, doesn't mean you have to cook for yourself. You can go out to a restaurant for dinner cant you? Again, this is extremely cheap in Spain.

Every holiday that I've ever went on was self catering.

It makes me laugh when people say "oh I can't afford a holiday abroad",

Then they dismiss all the sensible cheap options of holidays abroad.

You can afford a holiday abroad.

You just cant afford a five star all inclusive hotel abroad, for two weeks. Nobody that I know goes to a five star all inclusive hotel. We either get cheaper hotels. Or we book an apartment abroad for a week

That’s very obvious but I was wondering what holiday @Temporaryname158 was referring too as she was eager to say she holidays multiple times a year including a summer foreign holiday plus pays for all her living expenses on £35k

That isn’t what I was imagining by 2 week foreign sunny holiday.

if the poster who afford all these holidays on £35k means “the cheapest holiday I can get” than maybe she should say that. And realise that not other people don’t want any old holiday, they want a holiday they want

@AquaPeerif this ‘isn’t a holiday’ for you, then yes, you will be paying more for a hotel/all inclusive/etc. Again, it’s a choice and you are choosing a ‘better’ holiday and will pay the price for that.

How long do you think it will take for that to be a financially beneficial move after allowing for stamp duty, moving and legal fees, mortgage attainment and the increased interest rate- or worse, The mortgage break clause? Mine is currently 40k.
I suspect that alone makes that a move to a 3 bed more expensive than my current situation for at least 2.5 years I reckon

Eurocamp is offering stays in Picardy starting 26th July at £652 per week for a party of four.

As for £1500 per person being unrealistic, we're managing a 5 night Disney cruise in August for under £1500 per person, booking early.

That’s an apartment (I dread to think how bad it’ll be but let’s put that to one side) so I’m self catering and have no flights. That’s not a holiday.

Move to a more reasonably priced area? Assuming you live in London or another major city? (But happy to be corrected if I’m wrong)
I live in a lovely area. In a very nice traditional 3 bed property. My mortgage repayments are £800 per month.

Never go through a travel agency. Book it yourself.

I just went on booking com there and had a quick look.

You can get an apartment in Spain, that fits a family of four, for two weeks, for 400 euro total. Thats four hundred euro for two weeks

No one anywhere pays 8000 euro for a two week trip to Spain.

@Happilyobtuse I appreciate mortgage rates have gone up but you would have chose your house in a particular area etc and paid a premium for it, so your mortgage cost (aside from interest rates) are hardly outside your control? We all have a salary and make some choices on how to spend it and have to cut our cloth accordingly.

Pointing out the obvious but paying £2500 on mortgage, council tax and utilities is most of the reason.

If you want more money left at the end of the month then move to a cheaper area and or smaller 3bed.

How do you get a foreign summer holiday on that salary? Where do you go, where do you stay?

I sat on the tui app (and yes other holiday providers are available) to see 2 week family holidays in Spain or Greece at £8, 10k. I have a friend who is a travel agency and I asked her to look for me and she said £1500 per person wasn’t a realistic expectation. I pay for 4 people to go on holiday.

on £35k you’re taking home under £2.5k per month. How can you afford this? How many people are on your 2 week summer holiday?

@Stresshead84x

are your debt repayments manageable? Could you negotiate a different repayment so that you won’t run out of money for food? Or perhaps move so it’s 0%APR.

You need to review what you are spending on.

i earn £35k, i have a 2 week foreign holiday booked in school hols, several camping trips and another week booked abroad in May half term. I pay and mortgage and run an (old) car.

you are earning way way more than me but pleading poverty.

you are either frittering it away or splashing out on things you can be more economical with. Examples I see in friends who spend more are

ill preparation for days out so spend a fortune on food and drinks rather than bringing a picnic

no shopping for deals on car insurance etc renewals are just paid

lights left on jn rooms not used. Walking round in a t shirt and putting heating on etc.

thinking they ‘need’ to drink a few bottles of wine a weekend, that can be £80 a month easily.

You need a root and branch check of you spending habits as they are obviously too much if you can’t afford a holiday etc on that income

You need to write down a full
breakdown of your expenses. Something isn’t quite adding up @Justonemorecurlywurly . You need to work more hours, it’s a luxury to be be self
emoloyed and bring in 7-20k. What would happen if your husband lost his job and your bringing in such a low income ?

Exactly! Our mortgage is £2200 a month, council tax £320, gas and electric - £250, water -£60, food shop -£500-£600 a month etc. So when were on £5K we really struggled if we had any extra expenses, but after I got a new job and hubby also got a hike things have become a lot better.

I know how you feel, my wages are nowhere near as high- between us we bring in somewhere between £50,000.00- £60,000.00 a year before tax, however we have a very low mortgage and very low energy bills and no childcare costs, so I would expect to be better off but I feel like we are working constantly with no pay off.
We got caught in a bit of a debt cycle when I was on my (terrible) mat leave and then working part time and we can't seem to get out of it even though our wages have gone up a lot since then.

Every month something hits, if we do one thing- one night out, one day out with kids it throws off the whole month- a few months ago I actually had to collect food on a free food app 2 days before pay day because I didn't have one penny left- it's horrible.

@QuickTyper

You said you have prioritised your expensive house over holidays, car, eating out etc. There’s your answer then! So no, I don’t feel sorry for you.

Unfortunately we've collectively called for the green eyed approach to fiscal policy and used the existence of richer people to pretend that it's their fault there is no GDP growth and no plan to achieve growth.
With you OP.

Yes, it's the norm these days - it didn't used to be, though, but fully 'paid-for' courses etc., began drying up in the early 2000s. Plus, since then, professional qualifications/degrees required to join a profession are now paid for via student fees/loans. It's dire, and younger colleagues have it even worse than we did thirty years ago.

It's true that over the last few years some higher level qualifications have - rightly or wrongly - been made available to mid-level public sector employees via the government-sponsored apprenticeship route. However, places were limited and postgraduate apprentice programmes are now under threat from the new government.

So in short, we have a public sector which is not investing in its future workforce to the extent it needs to, and is certainly not promoting or paying for the culture of 'life long learning' that's so necessary to the delivery of effective public services. Public sector workers are not expecting high salaries, but they do expect paid-for development.

Thanks for your response.

There seems to be at least one identical thread to this every week on here.
At first glance, I do think "boo hoo, poor you" but it's all relative really. I'd say it's basically irrelevant what your "top line" pre-tax household income is, it's what you're left with that matters.
For example if your and your husband's combined take home pay is £5k but your mortgage and other bills come to £4.5k, it's no surprise you're feeling skint.
Can you do an income and expenditure sheet to see how much you actually have left over? Everything that comes in each month (after tax, NI, pensions etc) and then all your fixed bills. Mortgage, nursery, utilities etc.
Then you have a middle layer of things that you pretty much "have" to spend out on, but you can control the amount - e.g. groceries, phones, car costs.
Lastly you should have a sum which is truly "left over" as in, you can spend it on whatever you like - meals out, holidays etc.
Have a go of this - www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/budget-planning/

We are on a similar income and not sure what’s different but we have plenty for holidays, 2 cars and childcare costs (not a humble brag just illustrating what we can afford on this salary). We have a big mortgage, £1.8k a month, £320 council tax, £130 electric, £100 phones/internet and £900 a month on cars, as well as other smaller bills like house insurance, car insurance etc. our water is only £25 a month. And we’re paying back some debt. We’re left with £3k a month after nursery is paid of which food and petrol needs to be paid but still leaves us with a lot for days out/clothes/treats etc.

Million pound house and one of you is unemployed?

It's simple isn't it? If you want more money, move to a cheaper house or get a job.

I'm not sure it's reasonable to choose to live in a million pound house then whine about having no money.