How do people afford holidays abroad???

[mommathatwearspink]

There’s not many people I know that don’t have at least one holiday abroad every year. We have been looking for 2019/20 for 2 adults, 2 children... it’s the first year we would have to pay in full for both children as they are 2+. We’d also need to go in school holidays (unless we decided to take DD out during term time).
We earn around £50k a year between us, plus DP has potential to earn more but yet the price of holidays seemed unachievable. How on earth do people afford it?

What sort of holidays are you looking at? Our income for 5 is less than yours and while dh is quite frugal I’m not particularly and we manage. We’ve done Eurocamp which was actually great. I always go self catering because it’s convenient and easier with more flexibility we like eating out and we like having our meals when we fancy not to a hotel timetable. It is often cheaper to go abroad than stay in the uk flights from our nearest airport to Paris for example are cheaper than a train from Aberdeen to London and by shopping around there is always cheap accommodation to be had.

Have you thought about house swapping? With flights being very cheap if you book early , you could end up with a very cheap holiday.

We’re on a very tight budget but manage to go abroad to a Eurocamp type place most years thanks to the Sun holidays. We’re off to the Netherlands in October half term for a grand total of £200 including the ferry. We’ve also got a cheap caravan which we could take, but that makes the ferry more expensive, so we tend to use that for weekends away in the UK and get abroad holidays as cheap as possible through the newspaper offers.

My partner and I are on minimum wage, no young kids. We had s holidays last year.

5 days in Benalmadena in Feb £300 for us both self catering
1 week in Benidorm in July £1300 for us both half board
5 days in Albufeira £400 for us both self catering.

This year we're going to Benidorm in March for a week £600 for us both half board
Ibiza in September £1100 for us both half board.
We never used to go away just had weekends in hotels in Belfast but they cost as much if not more than the holidays abroad.
We don't skimp when we go away, we eat and drink what we want. We don't have young kids or fancy cars and try to save throughout the year to pay for them.

We use airbnb and budget airlines. We save for holidays, the same way anyone affords anything!

We have a similar income to yours. We always go for two weeks in August, we always book ours separate. Flights Ryanair or easyJet and a self catering apartment on booking.com , holiday letting or owners direct. We are a family of 4 and pay around £2000 for flights the apartment and a car.

Saving up.
I think on 50k you should easily afford it. Depends what you spend money on though.

Your income is only half the story. How much do you spend of it? We afford a holiday by saving for it. But I see it as an annual cost so every single month put away £350 towards holidays. So we can afford one or two a year depending on what we do. We have other annual costs like Christmas, running a couple of cars, that also have money allocated to them monthly. This means our actual disposable income each month is much reduced. Obviously it only works if you have money to spare that isn't required for essentials. On 50k you are looking at monthly take home pay of £3400 plus child benefit. A family of 4 could easily use the vast majority of the money paying for living costs. Both mortgage/rent and child care could take big bites from your income. Add running a car or two, bills, food, clothes, activities, hobbies and I can imagine that you don't have that much spare. Obviously it depends on your circumstances and spending habits.

Different people have many different circumstances. We just have one main holiday but we are on a combined inc of £90k. Sounds alot but two cars, we pay daughters rent, we are doing up a house so the holidays are lower priority for us at the moment. Paying for younger dd to go skiing with school though.

Do eurocamp £1k will get you a holiday abroad.
We used to do this when we had just graduated etc and didn't earn much

We used to go the last week of the summer holidays. I loved knowing I had that to look forward to before the shitty winter set in and it was cheaper and quieter.

I'll admit one year I misjudged the return to school date and dd1 missed the first day as we were travelling back but one week somewhere hot was my deal with dh to live in the UK.

Different circumstances.

I'm a single parent, take home income is £20k but I have about 3 holidays a year plus weekends away because my outgoings are so minimal. (I only have one child, don't own a car, don't have travel costs as work and school are walking distance, I have no debts, no childcare costs, bills are very cheap where I live - water is only £12pm for example, don't smoke and rarely drink alcohol).

When there are only 2 of you to pay for it is easier, I couldn't afford it if I had more children. People think I'm a secret millionaire! I'm not, I just genuinely have small outgoings.

I still say on 50k you should be able to afford it.
Depends what you prioritise. If you have expensive cars which guzzle fuel, a big house in an expensive area, buy pre packaged lunch for work etc etc then that is where your money goes.
I drive an old economical car. Sure if I win the lottery id upgrade but at the moment I can't see the point in wasting money on fuel.
Likewise I live in a smaller house so that I can manage the bills.
I don't pay anyone to clean my car, ever or clean my house. I do my own decorating and gardening and I never buy pre made sandwiches for work I always take my own.

We're going for 5 days in Spain for £139 a person, All Inclusive, Flights included from Manchester Airport. In the Easter Holidays!

You've just got to look in the right place,

Flights - Skyscanner
Hotel - Onthebeach

Your income is almost double the average wage in the UK, I’m assuming your outgoings must be high because you have a large mortgage or something sensible or your just not very good at budgeting or finding deals.

You must realise that income, outlay and expectation is never exactly the same for families.

I have gone abroad cheaply many times as We have relatives in America living in three different states and DH sister lives in Spain. I have also bought last minute deals. We have also met up with DH when he is on a business trip which means his airfare is paid.I have also just bought what I want but we paid our mortgage off when we were in our late thirties so that freed up a lot of money.

Get over to money saving expert and do a finely detailed budget.

Unless you have a big mortgage and/or high childcare costs, you should have the disposable income for at least one week in the sun each year in school holidays. Look at May or October (if you go to the Canaries, Malta, Cyprus or Turkey, it will still be hot) or if you are in northern England, look at going in late August from a Scottish airport. Self catering or B&B and eating out combined with one easy meal in the accomodateion some days can be cheaper than AI.

Put your requirements into the deal section of jet2holidays to see what comes up.

We spend very little on a lot of the things that many people regard as essential regular spending such as haircuts, beauty treatments, clothes, coffee and lunches, mobile phone contracts, pay TV, that sort of thing. Some people spend hundreds of pounds a month on those sorts of things, so a good place to start looking if you aren't sure where you money goes.

Another vote for Eurocamp. We've been to Italy & France in the past few years & it's been great. Whenever we ask the kids where they want to go the following year they always say 'Eurocamp!'

Sorry - forgot to say it costs about £1000 for 4 of us for flights & accommodation.

I normally book mine 10 months in advance and pay off for the holiday about £300 per month goes towards the holidays. We don't drink or smoke or have nails done etc
We shop in Aldi about £50 week sometimes less. My work is only 2 miles away so only spending £20 on fuel per week. As previous posters have said it largely depends on your outgoings

Similar income to you. Ferry to France in August, two-bedrom cottage. We pay around £1500 through Brittany Ferries but that is with the expensive overnight crossing. You can do Dover-Calais much cheaper and book a cottage independently.

You do have to account for petrol costs and food so it depends if you're happy to self-cater. We do because we'd rather go abroad and have to cook than stay at home and eat out.

we save. a lot.

our income is around the same as yours

we did eurocamp last year in a static in spain. flights were cheapish was fab. still cost around 2k all in though

oh and we have a massive childcare bill, so when ds goes to school we will hopefully find it somewhat easier!

We save up and look for cheap Airbnb apartments. Then we cook our own meals, don't eat out unless it's just a coffee and icecream.

Holidays are expensive. Even a cottage in the UK is ££££££.

We like our holidays but I never go to the hairdresser, have never entered the door of a beauty salon (ok, so it shows!), spend very little on clothes, have no jewellery, don't much care about home decor, drive a cheap old car etc etc.

If you can bear to wait until the last minute, we have picked up some very good deals on Travelzoo - for four, in the school holidays. We had a great holiday in Morocco in a 5* resort for absolute peanuts a few years ago because it was Ramadan. When we got there there was a sign saying the disco and casino were closed, and no alcohol would be served. Our disco days are over, but dh nearly passed out at the thought of not one cold beer, but they said it was ok for us...

Even a cottage in the UK is ££££££

A lot of the time it can be cheaper to go abroad than to get a cottage in the UK or go somewhere like Center Parcs, especially if you plan on eating out, parking or driving anywhere, or going to any attractions, especially indoor ones to get out of the rain.