To wonder how people afford luxury holidays

[dontbesillyhenry]

Not once but several times sometimes yearly? We both work and earn relatively good money but can only afford to stretch to a few days in England. We don't have loads of luxurys either so it really baffles me what are we doing wrong?

Credit cards, loans, inheritance, lucky when buying house so no mortgage or low repayments. Going out of school holidays...off season.

They haven't really gone and are just pretending on Facebook....

I think the variability in families circumstances is much wider than we usually consider. DH used to work in the city earning an incredibly high salary and is 5 years older than me. Anyone who met me in a school playground would have never way of knowing this. We didn't have a new car as we needed a special vehicle without time to order a new one & as I had young children I just used a changing bag. Someone else might have lost their parents & inherited the value of a house & have no mortgage.

Sorry about grammar.

Cheap holidays (STBXH and I did a week in Spain for £500 including flights, a week in the uk would've been the same).

They have a bigger income or less outgoings.

They make sacrifices eg second hand clothing, value brand food etc to save up.

Family own holiday homes so they only pay flights and expenses.

Family pay for them.

It's on credit...
so many ways

Earn a lot of money or do extra work and have fewer expenses.

I find it can be cheaper to go abroad than to holiday in the UK. We go abroad usually twice a year and one cottage holiday in the UK in the summer. Per day the UK holiday is more expensive . We never do package holidays as they are too expensive. We are a family of 5 and two years ago went to Costa Del Sol over christmas. Flights, (lovely) apartments, car and travelling/eating was less than £1k for 5 of us. The sun was shining so of course the pics looked fab. It wasn't 'luxury' though, but the photos looked it.

We earn decent money and really focus on holidays as they are important to us. I think the holidays we go on are the only way people would know we are fairy well off. (As in we live a normal life in a nice house but day to day life is very similar to our friends, it's just the holidays that we do are a lot more expensive).

Most of them earn good money and spend (some of it) it on holidays rather than something else. Surely?

I don't understand why people keep asking questions like this. There are so many different ways a family can earn and acquire money, and choose to spend it. Isn't that obvious?

I go on holiday abroad 2 or 3 times a year. It's a priority for me. But I'm always surprised when people talk about how much they spend on clothes per month, because buying clothes is so far from a monthly activity for me. I also don't have a TV and the only 'gadget' I have is my (not latest model) phone.

We manage to have a couple of holidays a year on relatively low incomes. We have a small mortgage and live in a cheap area, no kids yet and neither of us are into expensive clothes or technology.

We both work in decent jobs and prioritise holidays and eating out. I can't remember when I last bought new clothes or something expensive for the house. I'd rather spend it on decent holidays and regular European city breaks

My friends goes on luxury hols because her in laws pay for them.
The in laws are wealthy after her FIL sold his business for around £800k he then set up another business. So basically he starts up a business from nothing then flogs it and repeats the cycle.
Friend used to hate her in laws but now she is their best mate since they sold the last business

My in laws go on loads of holidays a year and I have no idea how they do it. I think because both working, no dependent kids, cheap mortgage but still it's mad! They also get new cars every 3 years. I'm quite jealous!

It depends a lot on outgoings. We went on three expensive long haul holidays (around 3 weeks per hol) in the past two years and a couple of overnight breaks - but we had no children, no mortgage, no car, no expensive hobbies. I bulk buy food and tend to only buy clothes in sales. Our incomes aren't particularly high (just over 40k gross household), but we prioritised our money into holidays and savings.

We now have a car, just purchased our first house and had our first child. We won't be able to afford another holiday for quite some time now as my priorities have shifted.

I save. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't go out, I rarely buy clothes and when I do they're essential. I take my children on a nice holiday once a year but I do very little in between.

I'm going on my first proper holiday next year to an expensive long haul destination. I'm on a low wage but I've been saving for years but not necessarily for a holiday though, I just realised that life is too short and I'm going to have another 40+ years of just existing.

I would never be able to afford one every year though.

I guess a lot of people will be able to take advantage of discounted late deals and can go away in term time which drastically lowers the cost.
I've booked for Spain next year but it wasn't much more to go long haul to Mexico and Dominican etc. I just don't want to do long haul yet.

Oh and I have a family member that moans about not being able to afford to go away but she drinks, eats out at least twice a week, gets her hair done every six weeks and she and her children are constantly in new clothes.

I think it's about priorities some people save, some people don't, some people have regular meals/nights out.

To me holidays are really high up on my priority list so I would rather do that than nights out/nights away where as my sister always says she can't afford holidays but her and her dp out for dinner/concerts/nights in hotels regularly.

Good careers and earning lots of money?

They go in October / November when it's cheap.

I take my kids out and go in term time too. I highly recommend it

DH is self employed and is doing ok and I'm on good money. The whole of my salary goes into savings and DH puts £300 a week in it as well.
We don't have any loans about from a mortgage so can spend a lot on holidays.

I save too. I have no credit card & never took out a loan.

I see around 3 countries each year.
What I do-
-Find cheap flights well in advance, roughly 6 mo
-Find accomodation on housetrip which is cheaper as we go 4-6 people
-Buy things in advance, slowly, each month I get paid I get tickets to an attraction where possible, city passes etc, so I split the costs.
-Once I am there I try not to spend on ridiculous things, like water from around the tourist attractions for 2€ a bottle, I take my own from the supermarket for the day etc

I don't : smoke. Drink. Have new clothes apart from birthday /Christmas from any money I get given. Have an old phone. We have no money to save each month. It really baffles me