Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think a holiday is more important than sky

138 replies

Moomoomango · 13/03/2016 15:59

Chatting to hubby earlier - I was saying I'd love to save up a bit each month so in a few years we can take the children abroad. We have very little excess money but I'd love to give them an experience and some memories. we holiday in the uk every year (center parcs out of term) but would love my children to experience a holiday abroad in a few years. Hubs is in a strop because he would rather upgrade to sky I q or something - when it comes out - we already fork out for a full sky package for the football and that is enough let alone adding more on the bill. Aibu?

OP posts:
LuckyTr33 · 13/03/2016 23:19

holiday abroad or UK

StepAwayFromTheThesaurus · 13/03/2016 23:21

Iggi999: you need to be pretty serious about it. Actually cancel it and they will phone you up within the next couple of days and offer you a very big discount. Say no to that and they offer an even bigger one (they said they'd give us free sky to for 6 months and than we'd pay a very much reduced price for the rest of the contract. We still said no because now tv is much, much cheaper.

Iggi999 · 13/03/2016 23:24

Thank you! If you've cancelled, could they come and take away the box? The dish on my roof?

WhyCantIuseTheNameIWant · 13/03/2016 23:34

Another vote for the holiday.

I have freeview. Never seen the point of paying for tv!

Also agree with looking at other holiday options.

Book flights to Europe when they come out at Christmas. (For a summer holiday), hire a car or take a tent. It will be a great experience.

Kids love variety. Mine love camping... It's a big adventure. Combine this with having to ask for a pint of milk in French, and that's a holiday!

StepAwayFromTheThesaurus · 13/03/2016 23:52

They'll not come and take the dish/box because they want to make it as easy as possible to (re)subscribe. They leave the dish on your old house when you move, and put a new one up if your new house doesn't already have one.

You can use the box to watch freesat.

Monstertrucker · 14/03/2016 02:06

Just the other day DH and I were chatting and he said he wished his parents had taken him abroad as a kid. They could easily have afforded it just never did it - but have no problems jetting about now all their kids have left home! He said he felt it really held him back and left him nervous of travelling - so much so that he didn't even consider going to uni. One of his siblings (in their 30s) has still never left the UK. We are very much trying to show our kids there's a big world out there and not to be too scared of it 😀

Philoslothy · 14/03/2016 02:27

MNers are often quite puritanical about TVs, there are often threads in which people compete to have the smallest TV. We are telly addicts, we watch trash, we have sky as well as subscription services such as Netflix which we watch on huge televisions which can be found all over the house.

Having said that holidays are a huge priority in our house, I love my TV but I don't think it creates cherished memories like a holiday does. I would also never pay centre parcs prices and I am sure you could camp abroad for similar money.

Having said that if your husband loves his sport and it is his only treat - you may want to compromise - especially if you have other treats.

torthecatlady · 14/03/2016 02:32

We have free view! I'm a cheapskate and could give you a list as long as my arm of what our hard earned cash can go on!
We don't watch a lot of tv although dh comes from a family where the TVs was rarely off. He doesn't miss it that much and it frees up money for other things.
Holidays or home improvements over sky anyway! Grin

DollyMcDolly · 14/03/2016 06:56

We have Sky Q installed and it's actually £10 a month cheaper than what we were paying. I'd choose Sky over a holiday. Mind you, I also have Amazon Tv and Netflix. I love a good boxset

Original poster
Moomoomango · 14/03/2016 06:57

Fantastic thank you going to try calling up sky! Would never suggest to him to get rid of sky altogether - although it irks me to put that much money at football he enjoys it and so I appreciate that and it will remain. He wants to upgrade to sky q which he was telling me something about being able to record a few shows at once and being able to pause a programme in one room and start it in another. To me it seems like a right Royal waste of money. We live in a three bed flat, we do have a small tv in our room
But given dh recently brought a massive curved tv in the lounge (his only money can't complain!) it is unlikely he would ever want to continue watching a programme on our tiny tv. We haven't watched tv in our room
For well over a
Year. It's just a typical he has to have the best of everything and not satisfied until he has it!

OP posts:
Original poster
Moomoomango · 14/03/2016 06:57

Own money sorry

OP posts:
Original poster
Moomoomango · 14/03/2016 06:58

Oooo interesting maybe we can have the holiday and the sky q if it's cheaper!

OP posts:
exLtEveDallas · 14/03/2016 07:04

We've currently got full package plus sports for £22 a month after cancelling. We were without Sky for a month before they called and tempted us back. Prior to then we paid £85 (which included phone and broadband). Thats a hell of a difference. Cancel and see what they offer.

eternalopt · 14/03/2016 08:10

YANBU to have different priorities, but If you're on the full sky package, I don't think it makes that much difference to the price to upgrade to sky q. Hubby has looked into it more than me, but from my brief googling, he seems to be right. I did find an article which did a price comparison so I'll try and find it. So maybe you could have both?

Twinsareplenty · 14/03/2016 08:12

YANBU.
Holiday every time.
£40-£50 a month saved would mean a good sized holiday pot every year too.
Sky is a rip-off now there's so much free streamed stuff out there.

eternalopt · 14/03/2016 08:23

Here you go. Here's the review www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/sky-q-price - long and a bit boring though. The key bit is the price comparison at the bottom of the page which I've attached.

To think a holiday is more important than sky
Mouseinahole · 14/03/2016 08:30

Holidays every time, shared real life experience is much more valuable than more screen gawping. We gave up Sky, hundreds of channels you can't imagine anyone watching. Freesat has all we need.

Ragwort · 14/03/2016 08:37

It's hard to compromise when you both have such different priorities, neither of you is 'wrong' it's just going to be difficult if you disagree.

We have Sky (not the full package) and do get a lot of enjoyment from it, DH and DS do loads of 'bonding' over watching sport (and playing it & going to live games - they are not couch potatoes Grin).

Personally I find family holidays incredibly stressful & would be happy to never have a family holiday again in my life but there are ways of doing cheaper holidays - house swaps, camping etc.

Flisspaps · 14/03/2016 08:47

I'd rather have Sky - but I grew up in a house where saving for the annual holiday abroad was more important than using the money for things like central hearing, hot running water, a landline phone or a washing machine, so my view may be skewed. That was in the 90s so fairly standard stuff.

Ragwort · 14/03/2016 09:37

When I look back on my childhood I don't particuarly focus on holidays but more on the day to day stuff - I was lucky and grew up in a happy family.

Some of our family holidays were pretty awful - camping in the rain Grin, endless boring for a young teenager trips to 'places of interest' Hmm, skiing - which I hated; I opted out of family holidays at 13.

Sallyingforth · 14/03/2016 09:47

If DH would rather watch football than have the holiday experience with his children then it's him who is being bloody unreasonable. Selfish git.

Iggi999 · 14/03/2016 09:47

Thanks Stepaway

Iggi999 · 14/03/2016 09:49

I still can't believe centerparcs is any cheaper than a Brittany ferries holiday to a gite with a big garden.

BarbaraofSeville · 14/03/2016 09:53

I think it is that CP is cheap in term time and you can make it cheap by spending a lot of time in the pool and riding bikes in the woods and taking your own food, but once you go in the school holidays and eat in their restaurants and do the paid activities that's when it gets so expensive that it can be cheaper to go abroad.

If you go abroad, accomodation, food and drink can all be cheaper than the UK and you usually don't need to spend much in the way of activities because the better weather means that you can just go to the beach, pool, play parks etc.

Tigerblue · 14/03/2016 09:55

Our two are teenagers now and growing more independent, so for that reason we're saving for a holiday abroad next year as we'd like that experience with them. Obviously you have to take into consideration what you're DH wants, but when you're old, will he remember the tv and a particular game, or a holiday!