To spend so much on holidays.

[Engol]

I thought we do quiet well, spend about €1200/€1500 on a weeks holidays for a family of 2 adults 3kids. We go on a half board basis so buy lunches and snacks. We Always go somewhere in Europe. I think we could cut back a bit if needed but to half the amount we spend would, (I think) compromise our holiday enjoyment. Yet other people report they spend a lot less and have a ball. Are we doing something wrong or are these people just super smart with their money?

We tend to have spending money off around £100 per day plus the cost of holiday, so minimun of £1,200 for a 7night stay.

2 adults, 2 children

Can you afford it? Are you doing without other really important things in order to fund these holidays? Do you genuinely enjoy them?

Different people have different priorities. If you enjoy your holidays, and you can afford it, and you're not living off credit cards or starving yourself for 10 months of the year in order to pay for it, then go for it.

And some people love a bit of competitive thriftiness - ignore them

No yanbu, it's your money and your time off, do what ever you like with it!

YANBU. Some people like getting brand new cars, I'd rather spend my money on decent holidays and get 2nd hand cars. Up to you how you spend your money.

Were had dirt heap holidays in the past at places like haven but only by stealing a day or so of term time and using discount sites - if we were to have our choice of dates etc, we'd have to pay the brochure price which is much higher.

We're going abroad this year for the first time in ages as just for once I wanted to guarantee some sunshine and I scoured prices. Camping was out (I've had a physical complaint not conducive to camping). I didn't want to have to drive when there so anywhere remote was out. I do enough cooking at home so self catering was out. I only wanted to go from a NW airport. We ended up paying just shy of £2k for a week in Ibiza in August. We couldn't compromise on dates because of school/fines etc. The other stuff we could have compromised on but it would have detracted from the holiday for me.

So, to summarise, we've paid what I think is a lot but we've got the holiday we wanted. We could've had a cheaper holiday but would've spent more on eating out, transfers, petrol etc. IMHO YANBU to spend what you do if you've got the holiday you want.

Dirt cheap not dirt heap! I'm not dissing haven

Sounds cheap to me tbh.

Whether in this country or going abroad, we don't end up spending much less than 4k for two adults and 2 children.

The problem we have is that my "children" (now 13 and 12) are adult sized and have been for years, so going out for a meal means paying for 4 adult dinners. you can't get away with a 5 childrens portion when your child is bigger than you.

So, you are left with paying for an expensive all-inclusive, paying about 80-100 for every meal out, or cooking in. Given that we both work full time, going self catering already doesn't feel like much of a holiday, if we had to eat in every night, I'd rather not bother and just stay at home.

Is that the total cost of your holiday- al travel and accommodation?

If so I don't know how you do it! Great value for 5 of you.

Or is this what you spend when you get there?

What fly said. I think I got a 'cheap' holiday this year, within the constraints of our requirements (school holidays, abroad, sun, at least 2 bedrooms, stuff for young kids). It will probably come to about £1700 overall including spends, but I did a lot of research and I don't think I could have done better for what we are getting.

We could have booked a campsite in the UK for a week and taken our tent at much less cost. However that's not what I wanted to do this year. My kids wanted to go on a plane. I wanted to spend my 40th somewhere lovely. My DH would stay at home all year round but he lost that battle :)

Sorry just to be clear, we spend €1200/€1500 while on holiday, that's our spending money. Next years holiday is coming in at €3,500 for a week. It's a lot of money to us but we love holidays and really enjoy them. We don't do without any necessities like food, clothing, heat or put it on a credit card as we don't even have one anymore.
I'd prefer a holiday over a newer car too. There's lots of bits and pieces I'd love to do with the house but it's not necessary. We kind of figure that we will have long enough to be doing up the house and upgrading cars but kids grow up so fast we only have a limited time to have family holidays.

I see threads where people spend so little and seemingly have a fab time and do so much plus eat out a lot. Even with our budget I have to keep an eye otherwise we would go way over.

Sounds like a normal holiday spend to me - just enjoy it and don't worry!

Depends on what you enjoy doing and what makes a holiday for you. We had a lovely camping holiday a few years ago when it rained three days non-stop in the middle. We spent the time couped up in the tent with three children - 13, 11 and 9 - who'd just learnt how to play cards properly, taking it in turns to make cups of tea and coffee in the rain and eating a variety of cakes. We've moved on to holiday home hire rather than tents now, but tend to self-cater. For me, being on holiday means not having to tidy the house, do diy jobs, cut the grass or any other household chores, but spending quality time with the family. The kids, now 17, 15 and 13 take it in turns to help with the communal chores of cooking and washing up. They're usually all busy with their friends when we're not on holiday and we value the time together. Fortunately, we don't need to spend anywhere near £100 a day, but playing cards isn't everyone's cup of tea!

Family time is so precious, especially when you have teens who are often gone out and about like mine. Not only do I enjoy not having to cook and clean while on holidays, I love the break from having to nag at them to help out.

I'm glad it sounds normal to most, it's not nice thinking you're spending money needlessly, especially when you've nothing tangible to show for it.

Engol, yes, that budget makes perfect sense. Some days we would spend more than £100 a day, some less. We've just got home and were in CenterParcs and Forest lodges and on an "eat in" day, we maybe hired a boat and played badminton and ate in so about £40 on another day we may have eaten out £80, had ice-creams £10 and did archery £70 - it all balances out. When the boys were younger, they'd be happy doing a lot of cheaper stuff and just using the pool and play park - this time, even though they were still just young enough to use the park, when they are 5'10 and 10-11 stone they tend to get glared at and the equipment just isn't made for them. Therefore it costs you a lot more for things to do for them as well as the food costs when you eat out .

We took them to go dirt buggy-ing and the woman struggled to believe that the giant moustachioed hairy arsed loon she was looking at was 12 - she had to send the guy off to get a different dirt buggy for him as he wouldn't fit in the one he'd brought out.

I think there should be some sort of extra child benefit to raise teenagers! :o