Holidays vs bigger house

[User125179313]

Would you rather save for a new house or go on holidays?

My DH doesn’t see the point of holidays (in the UK or abroad). He always enjoys the holiday when we go but still every year we have a disagreement about booking holidays as he thinks they’re a waste of money. I love holidays as do our children. DH wants us to save to either move house or pay off the mortgage early. There is nothing wrong with our house. Yes, it would be nice to have a bigger kitchen & garden & a spare bedroom but we get by perfectly fine as we are. I see more benefit in a family holiday than a bigger house.

Just curious as to what anyone else thinks!

If there is no need to move then I wouldn't, certainly not at the moment. Being mortgage free is extremely attractive but only if it would happen fairly soon, not if it was 20 years instead of 25.
We try to balance, we have at least one family holiday a year but generally just UK. I'm not a good flyer and find travelling abroad with small children really stressful and don't really relax much. Will certainly do it more when they're older though. I think making memories and giving your kids as many experiences as possible is so important. They don't need to cost a bomb though

You can have a paddling pool and a trampoline in your garden and still go on holidays. OP hasn’t said they have no garden.

We sort of did a trade off and compromised on largely cheaper European short haul holidays when the dc were younger and spent more on renovating our house. It’s now at a stage that we both love our home and it’s exactly as we wanted it.
We were all so thankful of this during the lockdowns to be honest! And now the house is pretty much done, the dc are older and we have more disposable income to spend on fancier holidays, plus they’ll remember and appreciate it a bit more at their ages too. Win win for us.

I love holidays but would prioritise house first 100%.

When you're old and grey I bet you won't be reminiscing about your 4th bedroom or your triple glazing. It'll be the wildlife holiday to Costa rica or the walking holiday in sicilly.

Always extremes.

Do both.

Cheaper holidays, save for house.

Well personally I prioritise holidays. But my dc when they were young were just as happy in Eurocamp holidays as backpacking around Sri Lanka. So don't kid yourself that you're doing it for the kids and their memories. Now they're teens it's different though and they love our holidays.

I don't know, I've had lots of holidays and yes I did enjoy them but most of my happiest memories have been at home or visiting family. Maybe it's just my kids that seem really happy with day at the beach and an ice cream or camping. Expensive all inclusive definitely haven't been my best holidays either.

Investing in a bigger house means that you have room for grandchildren to stay over and they will be your best memories when you're old and grey, by far. Or if you want to downsize in later life, it will free up funds for activities you want to do.

We upgraded because we needed a bigger house. Everyone kept telling us to build bigger, bigger, bigger!!! The cost is worth it!!! (Apparently)

All I could think was - whose going to clean all that extra space?

I'd rather have nice holidays than more cleaning.

House for me

So @User125179313 , what do you mean by 'holiday' ?
£800 per year or £12 000 per year?

As it seems that many of us think there might be room for compromise, from your opening post.

I've always lived in a shitty house growing up. Old furniture, no decor and nothing in a shitty location but we had our holidays once a year. To me it's important to have a nice home as you live in it everyday. I have hosted great parties, Xmas meals and family gatherings at my home and to me living in a lovely home day in day out beats any backpacking adventure with the kids in Vietnam. I'm a homebody and I enjoy the memories I make in my own home. I wouldn't say no to a lovely holiday but not at the expense of a lovely home that has space. I've recently got back from a long haul winter sun holiday during the last week of Xmas school holidays, everything was lovely and as a family we made great memories but even my 3.5 yo missed our home lol and we couldn't wait to get back despite the holiday being like heaven and we felt like this during the final days dreading the long haul journey back and finally coming home to sleep in our own beds was a relief.

Definitely holidays.

If it were a choice between one or the other, I would prioritise house. You are only away two or three weeks a year and a smaller house and garden would not do it for me.

Holidays

Memories over big house

House first. Not fussed about holidays a bit of a waste of money for me.

There is no right or wrong. I’d rather have a nice house but think balance is good so I don’t want to go hell for leather to clear mortgage at the expense of holidays but we stretched to get the biggest house we could afford.
My husband sees holiday as something you benefit for 1-2 weeks of the year and then it’s over. He’d rather have stuff that can be used over and over. For us both though we’d rather have no holiday than a really cheap one so would prefer something v luxurious every 2 years than something cheaper every year.

Thank you for all the replies 🙂
So up until a couple of years ago our holidays were fairly cheap. I have family abroad (in Europe) so we would stay with them and only have to pay for flights and spending money. I'd say we'd spend between £1k-£2k (DH begrudged even that though). A couple of years ago we did AI to Lanzarote for about £3K and AL to Malta last year for about the same. I always try to find the cheapest way of booking holidays. AL in sometimes easier with the kids but I don't look at 5* hotels or anything above £4k.

I think we live in a fairly average size house. Our children have their own (double size) bedrooms and we are definitely not squashed. We have a decent size garden with a trampoline and enough space for a large paddling pool in the summer. The only thing that annoys me about our house is our tweeny kitchen. It's fine for the 4 of us but can be awkward when we have lots of family over. I think we'd struggle to afford a bigger house in the area we live in anyway without forgoing holidays altogether for a while (we'd need a bigger mortgage and to increase the length of the mortgage). We'd probably have to move further away from London and that brings additional complications for us work wise and for the children's schools.

They are 7 and 12 so I think a good age to appreciate holidays and visiting different places but I do appreciate everyone's comments on the benefits of a bigger/nicer house also. I wish we could easily afford both!

We spend more on holidays month to month than any other discretionary luxury—more than eating out, clothing, cars... I see it as an appreciating investment because the memories last forever and will get sweeter with time. You only get about 15 years to make those memories with your kids.

Provided that what you already have is adequately warm, clean, spacious, and safe, I wouldn’t spend extra money to upgrade. Obviously if the area is dire or if the house is way too small and/or falling apart, that’s one thing, but if your house is doing the job, definitely holidays.

House absolutely 100%.

The memory of holidays won't keep a roof over my head when I retire.

Holidays (experiences generally) are top priority for us. Don’t really care where we live!

For a first time buyer, hoping to gather the deposit for their first home…..house savings trump holiday.

For someone who needs to move up to the next size house as everything is far too cramped….house savings trump holiday.

For someone who might fancy moving in future but doesn’t have a specific need or plan and who has a decent house now and especially if they have kids….holiday important.

Holidays can range from costing a couple of hundred quid for camping to tens of thousands. There is a big range and therefore, it should be possible to have some savings and also a holiday of some type.

Im naturally frugal, heading for early retirement etc etc, but I still insist on holidays. They are so important for family time and memories and something to look forward to. My DC are mid teens now and the years of family holidays ahead are reducing so we want to do some nice things together before the window of opportunity closes. We have a decent house and savings and pensions growing slowly and will continue with those. We could squirrel more away and sacrifice holidays, but it’s important to live for today too and not just the future.

Im looking to push myself to book a couple of big holidays which aren’t our usual kind of thing, over the next couple of years. It doesn’t feel natural to me as savings the norm…perhaps like your DH. However, I think I need to push myself on this even if we accrue less savings over the period, as it feels important to do special stuff with the teens and build our relationship. We are looking to ski together - expensive, but an activity we can all do together and enjoy. I wonder about a safari too.

Holidays all the way for me. I live in a flat, not bothered at all about having a house instead. I'm not a homebody and would rather be out doing things.

Im looking to push myself to book a couple of big holidays which aren’t our usual kind of thing, over the next couple of years. It doesn’t feel natural to me as savings the norm…perhaps like your DH. However, I think I need to push myself on this even if we accrue less savings over the period, as it feels important to do special stuff with the teens and build our relationship. We are looking to ski together - expensive, but an activity we can all do together and enjoy. I wonder about a safari too.

@WombatChocolate Do it, do it, do it! We did two 'big holidays with DC in their late teens and I am SO glad we did. By the time lockdown was over they were young adults who no longer wanted to go on holiday with us. But those holidays stood out - one in particular - as a highlight of family life. DS2 told me the other day that he has thought of that holiday with pleasure every single day since (it was almost four years ago now). I know people hate the expression 'making memories' but it was true that having that incredible once-in-a-lifetime holiday and a couple of other pretty impressive holidays leading up to it made a massive impact on DC and bonded us.