How much savings/emergency fund would you have before contemplating a family break?

[Lovinglife45]

We barely have £1500 in our savings and emergency fund. We transfer a particular amount every month and dip into it for one thing or another so it does not grow. I am stringent with our budget, yet we are struggling to keep our head above water. My dc are complaining about another year of no holidays and my h is keen on a UK family break which I do not support as it would near enough wipe the little savings we have.

We cut back in many areas; shop at Lidl, hwve cut back on meat, food and snacks from home only, no coffees on the run, no magazines or newspapers, I dye my hair and polish my nails at home, I do my own waxing.

What is your minimum savings before you would consider life's luxuries?

Considering the projected increase on energy prices coming in October, I wouldn’t be considering a holiday as cheap as it could be without £1000 saved solely to cope with the increased prices on food, petrol and energy over the winter.

I wouldn’t be spending those savings on a holiday. Prices are on the increase and you need a buffer for rising energy prices etc..

Surely something is seriously wrong if you're earning nearly £100k but have less than £1500 in savings with little prospect of saving more? Where on earth is all that money going?

Jimmy and confused
Without going into too much detail, we have high mortgage payments (got onto property ladder late with small deposit), childcare bills, my h took out a loan which we are paying back over next 4 years.

This. I read your OP assuming you were on min wage or something but £100k?! Of course in the SE especially, family life doesn’t come cheap, but I would be very interested to see a breakdown of your budget if you’re happy to share as that sounds bonkers. Are you paying off a shed load of debt? Otherwise then saving a couple of hundred pounds a month even should be more than do able.

Post your expenses here, I bet we can find the problem!!!

How about a houseswap? It's not something we have done but I would look into it as a nice thing to be able to do for people this year.

How much do these things take out of your combined take-home pay?

When you say “We transfer a particular amount every month and dip into it for one thing or another so it does not grow” that means your “formulated spreadsheet which lists every single expenditure” either isn’t listing every expense you incur in
a year (not a month, some expenses are irregular but must be saved for monthly) or it’s an inefficient system somehow.

You should divide your savings into long-term emergency only (£1,500 starting point) and short-term dip-into-this-if-unexpected.

On £100K income with a 2 adult 2 child family you really should be able to get away on holiday even if it’s not far or for long.

I’ve just seen your thread from March about saving an emergency fund and you say you also support both sets of parents. So you’re supporting 4 adults and 2 DC - and you will struggle then if you also have a high mortgage and debt.

Have you heard of YNAB? It’s an app and system that helps you focus on financial priorities and get ahead. Have a look and see if it resonates with you.

Camping is good fun, depends on age of children. See if anyone has a camper van or mobile home you can rent out?

Failing that, see if you can get a last minute deal on Airbnb.

@Lovinglife45 I get that childcare bills can be a big chunk of your outgoings. I'm intrigued as to how much your high mortgage payments are? Surely that's the point of banks doing affordability checks? If you can't afford it then I'd seriously look at selling up and getting something more affordable.

It's important for us all to get a holiday and recharge the batteries, even if it's only for a couple of nights. But unless you can find something really cheap, I'd not be comfortable going in your situation. I'd be more focussed on making longer term plans to live within your means so that you will be able to afford family holidays in future years.

We earn much less than you, pay quite a lot on childcare for 2 young kids, have an affordable mortgage, and have been able to save a decent amount. Although a large proportion of that will disappear in the next 6 months as we have saved the money for a specific house project.

But even after that, we should still have around 20k in savings and will keep adding to it. I'm conscious that our bills are rising and having a decent buffer means I don't have sleepless nights about our financial situation and also means we can hopefully afford some luxuries like holidays. But we've only been able to get into that situation by doing our best to live within our means, and I think that's what you need to focus on now.

A previous poster just said you are supporting your parents? If that's true I'd stop that straight away and focus on your children.

Help your parents to become independent, there are benefits they can apply for if on low income or ill health? Or perhaps they need to rethink their lifestyle if they cannot support themselves.

I would be absolutely mortified if our children ever needed to support us in later life.

We had a very nice staycation with what we saved in hotels and flights by booking a week off, stay at home at night but traveled to different interesting places around us during the day and had proper nice days out with what the hotel would have cost.

It went more or less like this per day: Liverpool, Ingleton Waterfall Trail, Manchester, Windermere, the Yorkshire Dales, York, Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It was very nice and I really enjoyed coming back to a nice place at night rather than a cheap hotel. Now, I have a car that runs on air but it may turn very expensive with the recent petrol price increases.

What about a night in your next closest city? Especially if you don't usually go there. I did that once, it was lush bit of sight seeing (when I say sights stuff I don't see often) shopping a nice tea and then perhaps cinema in the evening but with the fun of stopping over so you don't have to travel home.

What's a break?

Years ago when we had no money we did one night in a b and b by the sea and it was fabulous! We lucked out with the weather!

We started to save especially for holidays, 8 £ a month! Sold stuff on eBay, had enough for a break about 4 nights in a b and b.

We have more income now but still use yha for the odd nights,in summer they usually have 25% off.

You can self cster so we always take some supplies.
Some are nicer than others.....

Also with our money it's all completely broken down, so our savings are not that much more than you'rs but it's pure emergency money because we have separate money for children needs, Christmas is another fund...

Having a spreadsheet is a great step but monitoring money is different too allocating it.

Premier Inn nixer than travel lodge just don't look under the sheets.

Brighton has a good yha in an old hotels.not cheap but can self cater.

Yes, we help our parents. Now I know why people name change to minimise being outed. All it takes is a family member or friend to read a post, look up historic posts and join the dots.

Easier said than done about not helping parents - in some cultures it expected that children look after parents.

@NoSquirrels

Can I ask why you feel comfortable linking up a past thread to this one?

Mumsent is an annymous forum?

This should not be allowed
Op is allowed to ask for suggestions and help as per the ethos of this site.
If it's not annymous people will stop asking.

@Lovinglife45

I always name change for this very reason.
Complain to mnhq about it...it's high time they banned this.

I agree with the suggestion upthread about a house swap.

Either through an agency or, do you have any friends who live outside London who might be up for a swap? Even if they don’t live somewhere obviously appealing - sometimes just a change is a holiday, they’ll have different toys different local parks etc etc.

Look at YHA, it’s hostels but you can get private rooms or glamping pods. They have a great atmosphere to.

I guess the question becomes, do you need to dip into your savings to have a holiday? You don't need to pay £2000 for a week at Centre Parcs to have a holiday. We go camping regularly - roughly £20 a night. You could find that from discretionary spending for this month to book it and pay for accommodation. Then food and days out are roughly what you'd spend at home if you don't go crazy. BBQ/simple foods you can good at a campsite are generally inexpensive. You can do walks, beach days, free museums, maybe 1 or 2 paid attractions, bring a packed lunch. Really inexpensive.

I haven’t linked anything, I’ve just added information (that the OP confirms) from a similar thread they posted. It’s not against site rules to look at a poster’s history. None change frequently if you don’t like it and wish to protect yourself.

I looked to see if previous posts shed any light on why their outgoings were so high on a good income that savings abc a cheap holiday were impossible.

I make no judgement whatsoever on whether they want to support parents, but obviously supporting extra adult’s living costs will make a big chunk in ability to save.

I offered help in the form of a suggestion for a budgeting app & system.

This. I would help out for a few months, like giving my mum money towards winter energy bills. But that's it. Grown adults have to look out for themselves.