Do we spend too much on holidays?

[phrankiepoo]

What percentage of your take home pay do you spend on holidays/travels?

We go abroad for 3 weeks each year. Maybe a few days more.

We take home around £75k each year. We probably spend around £8-9k of that on holidays, all in. So we spend around 8% of our take home on holidays. My grandmother was telling me she thinks that’s an outrageous amount and I should be saving the money instead.

take home net is around £85k this year, spent £18k on 4 holidays. I get net holidays as im a travel agent. It was more than normal but normal is £10-£15k

I think it is nuts to be spending 2k a month renting and then blowing so much on holidays. All fur coat nae knickers 😜

Yes I do. Would you accept the argument that those with mortgages on their own homes are in significantly safer position aka have stronger rights to remain in their home then those in rented accommodation?

I would rather have a mortgage and the associated security that comes with it then a holiday. I appreciate it's just my view but i strongly believe you look after your main priorities before nice-to-haves like holidays.

Our combined gross pay is £140000 (no mortgage) and we spent £12k on 3 week holiday in summer last year and about 3x £1000 on short uk breaks throughout the year. DS1 also went on school trips last year skiing in Italy and to China (£4k) and primary aged DS2 went on 2 residentials (£500)
This is what we spend. It’s our money to spend as we decide. DH and I share 1 car and we buy >50% of our clothes off eBay/vinted. We have no debt. Holidays and experiences for our kids are what makes our hard work worth while.

Our net is £73k (after pensions and student loan too) our mortgage is currently £900, and we spend about £6000-£8000 on holidays per year (closer to £6000, £8000 is usually if we have an additional bonus). Our outgoings are relatively low, but we do have 2 kids. Just by way of comparison as we have similar income. I'd happily spend more, if you're happy with your housing, pension and saving position I wouldn't worry about what anyone else thinks!

Yes we save 1/3 and own property in Cheshire but haven’t bought a flat in Central London where we live. That will happen when we earn more money.

You’re on 12.5k pm net and 2k rent.
Assuming you’re maxing out your pensions and saving to buy (by your comment it sounds as if you want to buy cash rather than via mortgage) I don’t see why 8% on holidays would be an issue.
But it’s better not to share finance details with grannies, imo.

@SaturdayGiraffe eh? It's about £6000 pcm.

About 20% of household income on holidays
30% saved
50% on everyday living - no mortgage or commuting costs and frugal living.
We’d have no capacity to save or holiday if we rented/had a mortgage on where we live. We are very fortunate and we haven’t been in this position long.

Save your money for what exactly? Spend your money how you like and enjoy your holidays!

This is a huge percentage of your salary to be saving, and you already own property ? Bit of a drip feed. You can obviously easily afford what you spend on your holiday so there is no issue .

Do you have some savings?
Do you have kids?

We spent a lot on holidays before we had kids...don't regret a penny. The money is long gone either way now but we have the memories. And haven't left Europe since having kids.

If money was tight, that would be different.

She said 75k net EACH.

@AuContraire apologies 🙈 apologies @SaturdayGiraffe

I think we spent beween 7-10% of our net income on holidays. But, it can vary a lot between a s/c holiday in the UK and a long haul US holiday.

We also have family abroad so visits are quite expensive as we can't stay with them, so it's flights, car hire, hotel/s/c appartment. That is on top of our main holiday.

For me a holiday is something special, I won't go anywhere I dont' have at least the same comfort as at home or a choice of good restaurants. So any s/c accomodation has to have a dishwasher, washing machine, decent looking decor, lots of space etc. A hotel means 4-5*, a resort with lots of restaurants etc.

We just holiday how we want and don’t count other than value for money. Personally I wouldn’t spend 8-9k in a holiday as we’ve done Caribbean, Canada, US & Thailand for between 2k & 6k for 4 adults. Cant see any holiday we want costing more.

I don't think so. I think you prioritise whatever you want! Our first holiday in Jan/Feb is costing us around 9000. I think my elderly great uncles would have a fit if they knew though!

We spend a similar percentage but we own outright our home and have no plans to move, ever. If you intend to live where you currently are long term I would be looking to sell the Cheshire house, buy where you are and then see how much you have left for holidays. It is nice to be settled before you consider whether you want a family.

I spend 10% of my income on holidays - I take home £35k a year. It's well worth it to me as I have family abroad and really value holidays with my DC. When my DC has left home I expect I will spend a smaller %.

You’re right, OP wrote:

We take home around £75k each year.

which I read as 75k each (150k total)

But for 75k total, I’m now on granny’s side lol

I think the cost of holidays - even UK - has gone up so much it may seem outrageous to the older generation.
We are in that ballpark but have in the past had a skiing holiday and a UK cottage holiday totalling about the same.

@drspouse no matter how much holidays cost you can either afford them or not. If you are waiting to buy a house till you earn more then perhaps you can’t.

We earn a similar wage, we spend a similar amount and it’s just two of us.

It’s your money, if you can afford it (and only you can be the judge of that as you know your outgoings). We don’t spend our money on much else, life is for living and making memories.

We take home about £110k including bonuses. We spent about £1000 on a 3 or 4 day trip, £3k on another week trip and about £1k on another 4 day trip. So about £5k total.

We make £130 between us but sadly don't spend that much on holidays.
We fritter a lot on crap and are spending a lot of house renovations at the moment.
Our holidays last year consisted of camping, staying with family and staying with friends and a cheeky weekend just DH and I to a European city. Probably spent around £5k for all holidays.
I'm not keen on beach holidays - when the house is done I'd like spend our money on skiing holidays.