Crunchymum I don't think it's a pisding competition except for the 4 X 5 star luxury Caribbean villa holidays, two exclusive ski resort breaks, a month at our chateau in France and five or 6 luxury city breaks type claims (non of those on here yet).
We have no pets, rent a slightly rundown house in the cheaper rural backwater outside a very expensive city, drive economy Korean cars (largely for the 7 year warranty...) have chosen jobs we can work around our family rather than chase managerial positions with silly hours - and we have the luck that none of us have specific needs which limit travel or make it expensive.
We have holidays for 5 at under 1000€ - but yes, we live in an EU country which isn't an island so can drive to different countries easily. We fly to the UK every year to to visit people and even without counting flights it's always the most expensive "holiday". The UK is expensiv, you pay through the nose for everything - nowhere else have I ever paid even a fraction of the amount we always pay for parking in the UK, what is going on with that? The unreliable UK weather also often means shelling out for bad weather things to do. I think if people can get out of the UK and are prepared to research and organise things themselves they could find lots of cheap but lovely holiday options. Obviously no good for people for whom it's only a holiday if everything is done for them - that's always expensive.
It's more that people have very different packages of circumstances, from job flexibility to children's ages to disabilities to pets to huge mortgages to ill elderly parents and on and on, than just about money or being flash. Youth hostels and cheap pensions or static caravans aren't flash.
Checking how UK holidays differ from local ones where you're going helps find cheaper deals, and going in shorter school holidays and avoiding August.