How do you afford holidays?

[User46472874637]

Before you all come at me, please hear me out. I totally get how people are struggling to eat etc at the minute and impending winter is scary with energy costs! Totally get it.

I know we all have different budgets and income etc. we have a take home household income of around £35, 000. This includes my partners earnings of £32,000 before tax and others such as DLA for my son, child benefit, me carers and maintenance of his dad. We also get a small amount of tax credits.

many of my friends go on regular holidays when they don't earn anymore than us but how?!

we haven't had a holiday in 8 years. I would love nothing more than going away but it's not achievable financially even more so in current times. It's from paying for the actual holiday, spending money, fuel food and sorting kennels for our dog - or we could take her. We don't even have in date passports to go abroad. We've had a tough few years with lots of stuff going on in our personal life which I won't go into and I'd just like to escape the daily grind!

we don't go out, smoke or drink.

house is mortgaged and cheaper than rent in my area. But we've had to spend out quite a lot on house repairs. Don't have any luxuries.

I know I'm sounding pretty selfish round now complaining I don't get a holiday but where do we go wrong??

before anyone asks, we don't have sky or Netflix or whatever. No expensive phone contracts. We are in very little debt.

we don't eat out apart from an occasional McDonald's.

our utility bills are quite high which doesn't help.

I know we are likely in a better situation than most but I have a friend over the road, her partner and 3 kids, neither work (I'm not judging, just stating facts) and they go away at least twice a year! I just don't how people are affording it!

our food bills seems to be increasing week on week too! We are going over drawn month to month. There is nothing spare.

we are fortunate to live in a beautiful part of the country - on the coast which helps somewhat! But my kids had never had a holiday. My mums made me feel guilty saying all kids should go on holiday... my son has been on one in the U.K. as a toddler and my daughter hasn't had any!

Mil has been on 4 holidays this year. Maybe I am just a bit green eyed 😓

I just knew when I started reading this you was going to say you know someone who doesn’t work who has multiple holidays a year, yeh sure. I’m not working (disabled child) and haven’t been away in 10 Years, yeh all people on benefits have multiple holidays a year 🙄

We do a lot of deals ie top cashback and get about £300per year on that. We also have a really strict food budget because holidays are important to us, and we know we have to sacrifice something. We swap banks and energy providers etc to make the best of deals and cashback.

DH and I both have small side projects too - I do some speaking which can bring in about £500 per year and DH co-authored some books with a friend. He brings in around £250 with this.

we also sell anything we don’t use too

I don't think I could afford holidays on £35k either. The family who don't work could have other income streams that you don't know about..

Sometimes people have holidays paid for by relatives, or inheritence, or debt, or all manner of other reasons.

It sounds like you should be able to afford a holiday by putting a bit away each month, going by you not eating out, which is a big drain of money if you do it often enough (a fiver per working day on lunch/coffee is £25 a week, £100 a month, or £1200 a year and many people spend more than that, but there's your holiday if you can go somewhere mid priced, outside the school holidays).

But you don't say how much your mortgage is, whether you have car payments, etc etc. You need to work out where your money goes and if you should be able to afford a holiday, and if so, actually saving up the money to pay for it. Or if you can't afford one on paper, seeing if you can free up money to pay for one.

Have a look at:

www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/budget-planning/

I don't have DC but when I first got married at 22 and my DH was still a student, we had very little money but had a little weekend break in Belgium (our budget honeymoon lol). I understand its harder with children but the aparthotel we stayed in belgium had 1 bed apartments for 4 people too- www.adagio-city.com/fr/hotel-7242-aparthotel-adagio-brussels-grand-place/index.shtml?utm_source=googleMaps&utm_medium=seoMaps&utm_campaign=seoMaps&y_source=1_MTUzNTk0NTctNzE1LWxvY2F0aW9uLndlYnNpdGU%3D

This chain also has hotels in munich and lots of other cities. City breaks are great if you are on a budget and if you are in an aparthotel, you can cook. we bought groceries in Lidl and went to mcdonalds and also ate a lot of chips! It was great! And there were lots of free things to do and see.

So if you add it up, all you need to pay is the airfare, the hotel and the dog boarding. DH and I have more money now but i still like going away cheaply (except that now we don't generally cook on holiday). We go on lots of trips all over the country, railcard and premier inn are your friends :)

If all fails, come down to London and get a Premier Inn. The museums and parks are free.

Also check what benefits and other concessions you're getting. You mention entitlement to DLA, this often means that you are entitled to lower priced water and possibily extra help with rising utility costs.

I wouldn’t be able to go on holiday on that income either. But then I grew up having no holidays save for visiting relatives. “Didn’t do me any harm”. I think in respect of your non working holidaying neighbours - it’s either inherited wealth or something illegal : it’s not normal and you’re not going to achieve anything by comparing yourself to them other than make yourself unhappy.

House swapping. It’s a revelation!

Do your friends have family that live in a holiday destination? Or maybe they have family who pay for them? We get 2 holidays a year that way and all we pay for is travel. DH also travels for work and they’re usually happy for him to add on a weekend at the end, my parents have the kids and I fly out join him so we only pay for my flight and the hotel is on a corporate rate so discounted compared to what the general public pay. Flights, we use credit card rewards to earn airmiles/avios plus DH’s work travel collects them so we very rarely pay full price for flights. We’re also doing a UK weekend away next month where the hotel is fully funded by credit card points.

I know one person who doesn’t work who also has regular holidays and her sister pays for them.

What is a holiday though? I mean when Dh and I were newly wed graduates with zero income, we went on holiday cos we had a few hundred euros. We got really cheap flights and booked 3 nights in an aparthotel in Brussells and did free things. Shared a bowl of chips, cooked with groceries from Lidl, did free things. I don't think its that much more expensive with 2 kids other than the flights as the apartment for 4 people is only slightly more expensive than the studio...

Other than visiting family in Asia, all my holidays are arranged in this way except that as we have more money now, we eat out at proper restaurants rather than cooking or eating bites but the things we do and the experiences we have are the same.

We visit family in Scotland and then book a caravan or Premier Inn for a few days somewhere in northern England as a short break/stop over.

You also mention paying for house repairs and having a dog. So this is money you've spent elsewhere that others may not have, especially if you're a more responsible dog owner than them and have insurance, vaccinations, flea treatment, higher quality food, etc.

The fact is that there's so many variables in people's incomings and outgoings, many of which aren't obvious if you don't see what is actually going through their bank account.

All you can do is budget carefully with what money you have and see if you can free up money from non fixed outgoings for a holiday (shop around and reduce bills, buy cheaper food (ie seasonal unprocessed mostly vegetarian, can be done very cheaply) see what extra money you can earn, etc etc.

Can you earn a little extra (not enough to affect your carers allowance) by doing a bit of work when your partner can look after DC?

We have a joint income of around £55k, smaller mortgage and no kids and the expenses that come with them.

We still save to afford them though and don’t go on big all inclusive two week trips or regularly long haul. A few days euro city break, Lake District or U.K. breaks. I also do a lot of searching and trying to get cheaper hotels/flights etc. Even used nice hostels in some places.

We book early, find a good deal at a decent but not super expensive/ posh place and then pay them off over about 8-10 months. We normally go away twice a year, once abroad and once in the UK.
We do earn more than you between us though and so I assume have more disposable income to start with (although we are not ‘high earners’ like many people on MN).

Although we can afford holidays there are lots of other things that many people do (such as nice meals out and takeaway) that we don’t do as we’d prefer to use our money going away.

You don’t know the ins and outs of your neighbour’s finances - maybe they are living off a significant inheritance or other windfall.
Anyway regarding cheap holidays we use credit card rewards for free flights, go camping regularly (cheap after initial outlay) and aren’t afraid to stay in hostels - many of them have private rooms for less than hotels.

But if you live on the coast, definitely look into house swapping.

Although if your DC are very small, they have no concept of 'missing out' if they don't have a foreign holiday or any at all. A trip to the park to feed the ducks is still exciting.

I’ve got about the same income and get away 2/3 times per year. How much is your mortgage and bills?

I have young children and pretty much everyone I know with young children goes camping instead of flying abroad.

No clue
Our household income is around £75k with no childcare and we cant afford it.
Big mortgage and car debt, kids clubs coming out of our ears. Big food bills due to specialist diet for one member.
We do go away in uk couple times a year and have family at other end of country which costs for flights but not willing to get into debt for overseas holidays which are scandalously expensive at the moment £3k for a week self catering in spain......no thanks

OP do you keep records of your monthly income and expenditure?
If you do post on here a typical month so we can see where you can make savings.

If you don't then you ought to - it's invaluable fir budgeting so you can save for holidays!

Your mum and in law sound very unempathetic and out of touch. Great if they can afford holidays - which are expensive when you add it all up. But no need to rub in and make you feel guilty. You are living sensibly with little debt and doing best you can. Don't compare to any other family.

With an income of £35K a year, I can't see how anyone would be able to afford any holidays at all.

It's £35k take home so nearly £3k a month.

If they have no childcare costs and a smallish mortgage, they could easily afford a holiday if they control other essential costs.