Stupid questions about affording a holiday

[CookingApron]

I'll probably get some robust replies to my stupid questions, but I am ready. I need answers.

I am a primary school teacher. Husband works in middle management in an office. We have three teenage children. We do okay financially, but there's not much left over. The kids all do sports, which is expensive; we eat out a couple of times a year; and clothes are from charity shops mostly. Biggest outgoing is rent. Will never afford to buy a house. We honestly do okay. In fact, I think we're pretty lucky - e.g. the kids all have their own laptops for school, and we can add a couple of treats to the supermarket weekly shop.

I sat in a staff meeting recently and everyone was discussing recent holidays and holiday plans. We have a weekend camping most years, but have never been on a proper holiday - flights and hotels - because I can't see how we'd ever afford it. A lot of the other teachers often go to one particular place abroad and everyone was talking about how they always stay in the Hilton there because it's so great for the kids.

I scurried home and looked it up on their website and WOW it looks amazing. For the 5 of us to stay there it would be nearly £800 per night, and that's before flights, food, and everything else.

Is that really what people spend on a holiday? How are all my colleagues going their with their kids for a week every year? What am I missing?

Some people are just very committed to finding bargain holidays. My friend has amazing holidays but she spends a lot of time researching and doing deals. She is also very organised and books a long time in advance. She is also incredibly canny with money.
I suspect paying out for rent is the root of the problem though and living in an expensive area.

Yes I have 4 close friends who are teachers.

1- inherited a holiday home from her aunt when she was 20. Renting it out helped her get on the housing ladder going and she continues to get a rental ncome from it (and free holidays). Her parents also provide free childcare

2- parents bought her first house outright for her when she was still at uni. It wasn't a fancy house but it enabled her to get on the housing ladder much sooner and keep mortgage costs low. Her parents also provided free childcare when the children were nursery age.

3- both sets of parents pay to take them on expensive holidays and go on the holidays with them

1. Doesn't have wealthy parents and partner earns a modest salary. Struggled to get on the housing ladder and only managed it at 38. Holidays are cheap and UK based.

Salary is rarely the predictor of lifestyle any more.

Credit cards, hun.

My son is in his late 20s and has friends who were bought houses for them or had large deposits given to them via their own parents inheritances mostly due to houses now being so expensive.
I know people who are now very wealthy thanks to inheritance. We will never be in this position ourselves op, I do understand how you feel about how other people are having the high life , although sometimes it may just be on credit too!
You can pay off for holidays , we have done this before historically, but it's a big commitment.
Also having to go away in the school holidays makes it even more expensive too which doesn't help.

Are you in the UK? There's cheaper hotels than the Hilton (I hate them, too corporate)

Your colleague would have got that holiday cheaper if they booked it a while ago. Now everything for the summer will be way more expensive.
We save up for holidays and do them cheaply. Cheap flights well in advance and Airbnb and we usually only go for a week but have managed to go to many countries over the years. Some years we've stayed in the uk so we do cheaper holidays then save for one abroad the following year.
I set up an isa quite a few years ago to fund a once in a lifetime type of dream holiday.
We don't drink or smoke, I'm careful with my spending and I prioritise holidays.

3 kids. Of course you wouldn't be without her but we couldn't afford it with 3.

Debt. You can have almost anything if you are prepared to go into the red to pay for it.

We never were and our holidays were the same as yours OP. The kids enjoyed it and we do too (mainly because we weren't worrying about paying for it) and that was all that mattered.

We are decent earners, have 2 kids but I still wouldn't dream of spending what some do on a holiday. We're about to go to Spain for a week which will cost about £2-2.5k all in (will eat out most days) and then in October are doing a week in a 4 star AI for £2.5k.

We probably spend £8k a year on holidays but I feel like we do well in that budget. We get away 3 times usually.

I've seen acquaintances have expensive holidays and then found out they are cram into one room so maybe it's that?

I like staying in expensive hotels but I've never paid that kind of money. I think they've either got partners with money and/or no or low mortgages and/or it's debt.

Like you I'm amazed at how some have got so much money for big ticket items in this economy.

Lots of people I know book about 10 months in advance for a package holiday and pay it each month until they go. It is usually cheaper to book in advance.
How much do you have for this holiday and what dates? I bet the mums on here can sniff out a bargain.

We've paid £1800 for 2 adults 2 children for a week in Greece this year SC. We always go self catering as like to go out and about so hate AI. We've done AI before and when compared the costs overall we spend about the same as we always eat out on sc but obviously could do it cheaper if we wanted to/ had to .

Yes sc accommodation tends to be more basic but realistically as long as it's clean and beds comfy what more do you need in the room? Our accommodation this year has 2 pools and water slides plus in Greece your welcome at anyone's pool as long as you buy drinks / food so we often go to other pools

Both children are teenagers but we still get a free child place with jet2.

Many of the holiday companies allow you to split the cost with a monthly direct debit if that is doable for you . We often use an airport slightly further away as flights can be cheaper

I was going to say this!

Flights on Amex / Avios points
Room upgrades on Hilton honours for free breakfasts
Booking in advance
Checking for deals
Bank account holiday insurance lounge access through Amex

We book our holidays a year in advance when the Amex Avios flight come out. Or we book a package and pay it off monthly.

As a single parent I’ve never been able to take my children on a holiday abroad. Most years it is days out from home.

However, now I only have one child under 18 I’m looking at possibly being able to take her abroad next year when she finishes GCSEs and before prices skyrocket for summer holidays. She is desperate to experience going on an airplane.

This year I’ve managed to rent out a caravan for a week in August for £300 on the south coast, so that will be nice too

A PP also mentioned this but 6 hours' tutoring should be bringing in a fair bit - £200 - £500 a week dependent on what part of the country you are in and what you tutor (11+ or phonics or whatever).

We stopped at one child, and didn't have a child until we'd saved (both worked a second job) and bought a house, so our mortgage is probably less than your rent.
We have two foreign holidays this year, one we just drove to the Netherlands and used clubcard vouchers to pay for the Eurotunnel, the other is more expensive but they needn't be.
Having said that you think £800 a night for a family of five (all basically adults) at a luxury AI is expensive I don't

I'm a teacher and can comfortably afford New York, Disneyland, Center Parcs and Italy this year.

If you travel for work, Hilton have a points system that can make breaks much cheaper.

You have three children, that's very expensive.

You rent so you have missed out on what is my wealth builder. It is a luck game. I am northern and 40s so I could buy a house on a graduate salary and so could my husband. When we married we both had houses that had doubled/tripped in value plus lower monthly outgoings. Sheer luck but instrumental in securing financial security. Move forward 20 years and it would not be possible - our mortgage would be massive.

Plus debt, far more people than you imagine carry lots of debt. And a previous poster made a great point about inheritance and salary not being a fair indicator of lifestyle anymore.

And for lots of people holidays are their priority. I just like a European bit of sun. A week in Greece is much cheaper than the Caribbean, Mexico, Disney etc. you could book 18 months in advance and pay off that way or drive to France for a eurocamp as more affordable alternatives.

Annually we spend 5% of our income on holidays including uk hols. We spend 12% on our mortgage and another 5% on overpayments.

In some destinations package holidays work out cheaper than the per night price on the website. Especially if you book late or early.

Booking in advance saved us about £1000 on 10 nights in a eurocamp mobile home. I booked this year's holiday last August.

We have 3 DCs and have always self-driven and self-catered. French campsites are brilliant, amazing pools, decent facilities.

You don't have to spend this though - last year I paid approximately £2k for a 2 bed apartment in the canaries (school holidays over the August bank holiday weekend) for 17 nights.
When you are there you spend as much or as little as you like. Our requirements are quite particular as one of my children is ASC

3 kids makes holidays almost twice as expensive as you need 2 rooms. We found that when ours were younger …..up until oldest was around 9 …..we used to go France every year to a caravan park in the Vendee ….the park was full of families with 3 plus children

We 4 adults + teen going for a France Eurocamp holiday in August. (That's us + teen DC and adult DC & prtner)
£1300.- for accommodation. (Booked in November)
£160.- return ferry crossing (booked in January) and approx £200 fuel cost for the car.
I use my weekly food budget for well basic food... - that's to get us to the site.
We put around £150.- each month into savings so some of that will pay for extra food and activities.

Obviously it's not the Hilton, but we have plenty of free and small fee activities with the park booking to keep everyone happy.

I would say for next year think where you want to go, price it up on this summer price and start saving! Look for things that are affordable and also often if you book in November/ January you'll get some discounts. Or you hold your nerves and book last minute if not to fussy where you go.

OP - it is often cheaper going via a tour operator with chains like Hilton, they have an agreement to fill so many rooms, the tour operator gets a discount compared to you booking for those rooms because they’ve booked so many across so many locations. Have a look for that Hilton on TUI etc and see if it’s £800 a night. If your colleagues are a couple of teachers, then they have a lot more flexibility about when they can go away in the school holidays, I’m guessing your dh would have to book time off in advance and play juggling with when his colleagues are also off in the summer holidays, so you can’t just grab a last minute deal.

We work/worked in education and are mid and later fifties. Two children and bought in 1999 within 18 months house prices had doubled where we live. Our secret money is successful investing. Not for the faint hearted, took some big risks in our thirties. Paid off the mortgage within 5 years. So it’s meant 20 years of what would have been used for mortgage or rent money as our investment pot. Briefly high risk, mainly moderate and now as less time to recoup as older it’s almost all low risk. All self taught, we were both good at it but also there is a luck element involved. So we did stuff like a month in America, plenty of regular trips and then we did a couple of cruises. The two week one did cost about 7k. We also have relatives in America, Spain and Hong Kong so have stayed a few days with them sometimes. Never stayed with the Norwegian, Taiwanese, Hungarian or Korean branch. Family is a bit like the UN.

We have done a lot of last minute holidays, began when we got a half price safari last minute for our honeymoon off of teletext holidays. Two weeks for 1.5k in 1999.

Buying a motorhome for extensive trips as we will both be retired within next year. Have never discussed our money situation with anyone in real life. Just let them make assumptions.