To wonder who can afford this? What do you spend on your holidays?

[Bridgeofpies]

I was flicking through a travel magazine and having the usual envy of the people enjoying sun drenched beaches, bustling exotic markets and artistic sunsets etc. So I had a look through at all the places to stay.

Almost all the hotels and accommodation (or a large proportion) were from £400 per night for a double room! Some were up to £700. It got me wondering - who actually stays in these hotels? They look amazing and I can imagine doing it for a one- off special occasion like a big anniversary or birthday but are there people who spend this on their “normal” holidays?

We are definitely well-off by most standards but wouldn’t consider this for a holiday! (Especially with 2 kids, it would be insanely expensive). Our last big blow out holiday was around £3500 but that was 2 weeks, all-inclusive, with flights and for all 4 of us!

So, just got me wondering, is it just billionaires and business travellers on expenses who stay in these places?

You're 'budgeting' on £80k a year??

Well yes. Not me. But "budgeting" just means planning how to spend your income.

80k is about 4.5k take home a month. You could easily be spending 1.5k each on mortgage and childcare for two kids. That leaves 1.5k a month, most of which would go in food and bills. Certainly not at income level at which there would be no reason to think about a budget.

I'm amazed at how much people spend on holidays. We spent about £4,000 for five of us two years ago and that was the first proper holiday we've had in years. Usually we go camping or stay with friends. Generally would try to spend £500 or less on a week away for the five of us. £30,000 us my husband's earnings for the year so no way would we be spending £22,000 on holidays!

Budgeting is about making sure your outgoings don't exceed the money you have coming in. We were at one point on about that, and after tax, mortgage and most importantly childcare costs for two dc we also had to budget carefully. We had a great camping eurocamp holiday just out of season. There were times in our life when we had had a fraction of our income coming in but we had never experienced such high outgoings. That doesn't mean I didn't know that there were people on much lower incomes than ourselves, of course I did but we still had to budget to afford a holiday.

I'm spending about 2k on a holiday for me and dd, other family members paying for themselves.
We are going to Italy - Lake Garda/ Verona.
I work pt in a call centre for min wage.
It's not how much you earn, but your disposable income.
You can be low income and have far more disposable income than somebody who earns 5 times what you do, if your outgoings are few.

I don't know why people find people with a lot of money spending a lot of money on holidays amazing or unbelievable.

Day to day bills will take up a much bigger proportion of a lower earners salary so disposable increase will be a bigger proportion for higher earners so they will be able to afford much more expensive holidays.

And as this thread has demonstrated, the luxury version of any aspect of travel can be very very expensive.

There are people using these luxury or far off facilities, so someone must be paying the prices they charge.

We probably spend about 2k per year on holidays. Two adults, no kids.

Last year we had a couple of UK city breaks, plus a week in Lanzarote. We're getting married in September and off to Scotland for our honeymoon as we'll have a puppy to think about. The cost of kennels was more than the cost of a week abroad.

It's fine, though. We live in the Lake District - five minutes from both the beach and the mountains, so it's not like there's nothing for us to do! We have a lot of holidays at home - day trips to various places, or go to the local waterfalls and do wild swimming, days at the beach cost nothing, for example.

I don't know why people find people with a lot of money spending a lot of money on holidays amazing or unbelievable

Personally it's just because I can't imagine having that amount of disposable income.

When you live hand to mouth the very idea of having £1k a month to put into holiday savings is another world.

I'm not saying they shouldn't do what they like with their money of course, just can't imagine ever being in that position!

Barbara

I don't agree tbh. I have friends who earn 5x and more in some circumstances than we do.
They are skint as they have high mortgage, huge houses to heat, childcare, lots of luxuries they find they need,and of course costs associated with their jobs that they don't get back.

We live frugally, don't have heaps of luxuries, tiny mortgage, never any childcare.
So we can blow our money on what we like as we don't have a particular image to uphold.

I don't know why people find people with a lot of money spending a lot of money on holidays amazing or unbelievable.

Because it's so impossible to think of having that much money AT ALL for some of us, let alone having that much money to spend on travel.

Some of these holiday budgets are double our annual income. For me, having 20k to spend on ten days in Florida, for example, is insane. Of course people can spend money on whatever they want, but can you really not imagine even earning that kind of money is completely impossible for some people? Let alone having it to spare at the end of the year!

@StarUtopia - You're 'budgeting' on £80k a year??

My jaw hit the floor there too. And the post where someone has pointed out that this is 'only' £4.5k a month...

I'm working 30 hours a week, have mortgage to pay, DD to support (with next to no financial support from her dad) so literally live hand to mouth with whatever I can scrape together put into savings.

Jealous? Yes of course I am! I'd love to have £1k a month to put into a holiday savings account!

This is astonishing! Do people really spend 10k on a holiday? That is my life savings! I was thinking the other day that we are quite comfortable are in a better financial position than I thought and was considering a holiday. I haven't been on a holiday abroad for many years. The kids have never been on a plane or a ferry. I'm loathe to actually bother looking now. The most we could spend for four of us is around 500-1k.
I'm back to realizing we are poor by Mumsnet standards!

I'm in the same boat as you gillybeanz and we have the same job. I spend £5k on travel a year I just have very low outgoings. No car, DS at state school, no childcare fees, bills are low in my area.

BitchQueen

Maybe we should tell all the high earners they needn't bother

As a single mum earning around 18k with one child I spent arounf 6k on holidays in total last year.. we went to The Gambia 3 times, a week in Marrakech, a weekend in Rome and a weekend in Budapest plus 2 UK short breaks to Plymouth and London. I always shop around and get good deals, I'd rather see the world than stay in pricey all inclusive hotels but it depends what your priorities are.
Now my husband is here and we have a newborn... we've booked 2 weeks b&b in Easter holidays '19 for £2100 including flights etc for the 4 of us.
It's all relative.

And the post where someone has pointed out that this is 'only' £4.5k a month...

I didn't say "only". In fact I very carefully avoided saying "only" at any point in my post. And I think mine was the only one that referred to "£4.5k a month"

I didn't say "only". In fact I very carefully avoided saying "only" at any point in my post.

Hence the 'only' was written that way - it was implied, not quoted. It was made to sound like that wasn't much to have left over.

Sorry if that sounded nasty, I'm just a bit bowled over by how poor I feel at the moment after reading this thread!

bold fail

Sorry. I interpreted it as a quote. I even went back and checked my post!

I think a lot of people are feeling poor after reading this quote. I'm feeling a bit poor, and I know I'm absolutely not.

Being in a position to pay for 2 x childcare AND service an expensive mortgage IS a luxury (of your choice) even if you don't feel it. Reaching the other side when you longer have those costs - that's when you can splurge on some aspirational holidays - always a silver lining!

The MN demographic is obviously older and more affluent - if I answered the question a decade ago, it would have been completely different due to less household income. My answer 5 yrs ago would have been zero holidays because we had other financial priorities at the time like paying the bills. I'm slightly when posters claim that they are on low incomes and can still afford holidays of a few thousand AND btw, they also own a second holiday home or a BTL (in other threads).That makes them pretty well off in my eyes! (Pretty sure that property is worth more than £20K!)

Of course people can spend money on whatever they want, but can you really not imagine even earning that kind of money is completely impossible for some people?

I think there’s an assumption that posters who are well off have always been well off. That they’ve never known what skint is. Personally I can recall horrendous times financially and whilst I’ll never forget them I don’t like to actively remember them which is why I won’t give examples of how skint we were. They’re my times. No one else’s. We came into our money when a first career was over after 30 years. A business was then started and 18 years later things are very different to how they were previously.

Being in a position to pay for 2 x childcare AND service an expensive mortgage IS a luxury (of your choice) even if you don't feel it

Yes, but you still have to budget. That's all.

Of course people can spend money on whatever they want, but can you really not imagine even earning that kind of money is completely impossible for some people

Of course I can imagine that . Most people are only ever going to be either poor or average money wise.

But you only have to walk around with your eyes open, and also observe on here, that some people are very comfortable and have sufficient disposable income to afford £20k pa or more on holidays. So being 'astonished' that someone else might spend £10k on a holiday shows a lack of imagination.

cloisonne I don't own any property at all. Unlikely that I'll be in a position to for a good few years due to only working PT so I'm enjoying the holidays for now.

Teisan you are right, we always struggled but got by, when the recession hit we almost lost our house.* Now dh earns over 200K I don’t take it for granted ever and I’m more than aware it can all end at any time so I save a lot but also after all the years of struggling I’m trying to enjoy it too and do things that we never thought possible and holidays are one of them.*

Why that’s in bold I don’t know!