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 😓

Really? I have a disabled child and also don't work. I know what it's like. Stop getting defensive. We get tax credits so we are on benefits? I also have been a single mum
on benefits. I'm just genuinely curious on how people can afford any holidays regardless of their employment status. Calm down 😅

How much does your dog cost a month?

I’m not “getting defensive” it’s just so predictable when someone goes on to moan about those not working going on all these holidays, do you know their situation? Pre kids my brother paid for me to go on holiday on a couple of occasions you literally don’t know how they afford it no one would have known as I didn’t tell them!

Not a lot at all. She's a very petite terrier so costs very little on food. No vets costs yet - very healthy. Regular wormer and flea etc but that's about it 😊 I groom her myself!

People I know who are on a tight budget or unemployed/ on benefits generally go on occasional holidays if the opportunity comes up.
My sister was unemployed and went on holiday with compensation money from an accident, my parents have very little income and go on staycations in autumn or spring in hotels where they do discounts.
Once I went to Portugal for very cheap because PIL had booked the whole thing but had a death in the family and asked us if we wanted to go in their place at the last minute. All we needed was spending money.
Sometimes people get loans out for holidays and end up in debt.
Sometimes someone they know owns a holiday home and let’s them use it for free.
Nobody I know who doesn’t have much income goes on regular holidays.
Maybe it’s just selective attention, you are looking at the people who do go, presuming what their income is and then thinking lots of people on similar or lower income than you go on holidays. You’re not noticing all the people who don’t and maybe the ones you know of have money you don’t know about or are doing it on the cheap.

So your mortgage is cheaper than rent and you have a decent income on top of CM payments and DLA...

I'm inclined to think you must have poor money management. I'm saying this as a single parent and I can afford to holiday yearly! I also earn under 32k!

Me and my partner are on the same income combined and have managed to book a week all inclusive for two of us for £1,200 late deal
We live in a cheapish area for rent £400 month 2 bed so have disposable income each month to save

My next door neighbours before I left London sold skunk to pay for their 4 holidays a year ....

We do two long weekend breaks a year. Things we have done to cut costs:

We go away with my parents at least once a year. That halves the cost, and when the kids were little my parents would also babysit one night for us to go out / help out in the mornings so we got some lie ins too. Of course, now my dad is older and has dementia that is being repaid as we now take them away and share the care of my dad.

I don't know if they do sun holidays. I used to book sun holidays for a long weekend for £150 (we always upgraded to the nicer accommodation)

Butlins is your friend. Particularly if you do term time, but even if you went peak summer holiday this year, it was £600 and we barely spent £50 whilst there. Everything is free - cook your own food and use the free entertainment (swimming pool, soft play, panto, fairground rides and free shows)

Finally, I do exam marking each year and put away the money from that. Could you not do an evening of babysitting and put away the money?

Go term time, it's so much cheaper. I'm a teacher, but as I'm at a college. My term dates are different to my Children’s. I always pulled them out of school for the Friday and Monday (phone them in sick if needed, I always told the school what I was doing, they didn't mind). Even a weekend in early July is so much cheaper! A weekend break next July at Butlins is £283. You should be able to earn that babysitting once a month over a year.

• Camping.
• Youth Hostel Association have hostels in really nice areas & family rooms can be around £55/60 night for en suite family room.
• Premier Inn
• Canvas holidays in May half term

We have done all these as our main holiday. We both work but can't afford to fly anywhere hot with a pool. So it's about accepting you can't afford that sort of holiday too. We're both teachers so not able to go in term time.

You would think that but I really don't know how we can improve money.

we don't have any luxuries at all, I haven't had my hair cut in a year etc. we eat out once a month max when I get a McDonald's voucher on the app so costs about £15 a month for a treat!

out bills are high which is the killer. Our water alone is £90 PM. We are under southwest water which has the most expensive rates in the country and we use a lot as kids generate a lot of washing! We've looked into having the cap but not eligible it seems!

we also live rurally out in the sticks so pretty much have to drive to do anything so the fuel costs add up!

Depends on the holiday, or what you consider a holiday. My Aunts and Mum earn nowhere near £35k but they have a week in Yarmouth every year, the caravan being around £850 for the week.

We took our toddler camping in the Peak District a couple of weeks ago. £80 for 4 nights, plus a trip into a nearby town 1 day and food. Granted with Camping you have to get the equipment in the first place, but with the world opening back up there's alot of barely used tents and things going for cheap after people brought them for use during Covid.

2-3 foreign holidays a year aren't really feasible for most but then some people have different priorities. I know a couple of people who care about holidays more than anything and will sacrifice in other areas of their life so that they can go on them.

I'm genuinely curious as we don't go on package holidays, but can they not be paid off monthly, might make it slightly more manageable than needing to find £1000+ in one go?

House swapping, staying with family, camping, youth hostelling...? Go out of season, go for a couple of nights only, choose somewhere where you can do self-catering (ideally with the dog) and where lots of activities are free or very cheap (beach, countryside walks, cycling, free museums etc). Still a break and a change of scenery.

Don't think there's much point wondering how other people afford it, really. Some will have holidays paid for by extended family (not uncommon for grandparents to pay if they're going themselves), some will be doing any or all of the above suggestions for cheap breaks, some will have different daily costs from yours (e.g. no pets, no car, no house repairs), some will put it on credit cards, and some will simply have a higher income.

We have a take home income of around £27,000pa. We rent, don't claim benefits other child benefit (which goes into a separate account for the kids) 2 dogs and 3 kids under 3. While we couldn't afford big expensive holidays, we always have at least a week away each year, sometimes 2! It's just about living within your means. Priorities, budget, etc.

I grew up going on sun holidays, they were the best.

Unsure myself if they still do them but they were always term time.I see no problem taking kids out of school for a holiday if their attendance is generally pretty good, I alway went on term time holidays as a kid but in our case a week of school might be really disruptive for DS!

I must sound really selfish moaning about not getting a holiday when so many people are struggling to buy food and I don't mean to be. It's just that I've had an unimaginable couple years and could do with getting away even just an hour away from home!

I'd be quite happy with a weekend away in the U.K. we don't have passports anyway!

I've just feeling shit because my kids have never had a holiday, well DS has but can't remember.

my mum told me that all kids should go to Disneyland. We only went to Disneyland as my grandparents took everyone! I told they can go if she pays so she soon stopped talking about it 😅

Well.. our income is bigger than our outgoings.
If yours isn't then it's going to be hard isn't it?
See if you can trim the budget anywhere (i'm sure people on here will help if you post it) and save up every month and hopefully you can book something next year?

Thank you. Most of the bills come out of dp's bank which I don't have access to at the minute - he's at work! But I will have a look. I've looked at everything so many times though, we just seem to f**k up somewhere!

we do spend £100/150 on food a week - there's 4 of us.

We havent had a holiday since 2017, but for the most part any holidays we have had have been paid for by my husbands parents. Now they are getting older and have more spare money they want to spend it taking their children and grandchildren on holiday. Finally rearranged our holiday from 2020 to next year.

You’ve just nailed it in your last post-your food budget for 4 is quite large. I don’t spend that on food for 4 adults and I’m in the fortunate position of being able to put whatever I like in my trolley.
I reckon you could easily cut that down to about £80/week for 2 adults and 2 kids

My three children and I live on less than that and we can go away a few times a year.

Shop in budget supermarkets. Buy what is cheap, don't have a set list. Buy short dated meat and freeze it. Buy generic brands. Turn your thermostat down. Have shallow baths, don't shower. Research every large purchase to get the best deal. Change internet providers and insurance companies every year to get best deal. Never buy Apple products! Stop watching BBC/live broadcasts.

It's not just bills though or large expenditure like food. Are either (or both) of you spending little regular bits of money on nothing much, that you could do without?

Download a few months of transactions into a spreadsheet and see where it's going.

Do you have car payments? Does your DP take a packed lunch to work or buy it? If he's getting a daily coffee, plus a nice lunch and the occasional pint after work, he could easily be spending a big chunk that would go a long way towards a holiday.

What about days out with the DC. I think a lot of beaches in the SW are owned by National Trust, which could mean that it would be worth buying membership for lots of cheap days out.

There you go then.

Is it £100 a week on food or £150? There's a massive difference of £2600 per year there. If it's £150 then cut that to £80 and you can afford 2 holidays a year. One UK and one abroad.

If this is a serious post we will need more info about your bills. My water is £40ish per month so yes yours is a lot but still will a cheap mortgage I can't understand because you have child maintainance also.

Sorry but unless your paying significant debts there's no way what your saying is adding up OP

Maintenance from sons dad is only £30 PW so nothing to get excited about. He should be paying a lot more but that's a whole different post and I haven't got the energy to fight it!

We were under the old style CSA when his earnings were lower years ago, he decided to make our own arrangement of £30 PW to avoid the newer child maintenance system. A week later he announced new job with a hefty pay rise and also ran a small business on the side. I haven't got the energy to argue it 😩