To ask how long it takes you to save for your holiday?

[Merryoldgoat]

Since having DC, my husband and I have only holidayed with PIL. Money is tighter than before (although far from ‘tight’ - I’m not crying poverty) so PIL always pay for the accommodation and travel (ferry) but we stay in the U.K. so petrol etc is out cost. We share all the food shopping and treat them several times too.

However, in 2 years my youngest will be getting 30 free hours and we’ll be able to afford a sunny holiday abroad.

I saw a holiday for about £3k which looked lovely. That would take 5/6 months of saving. Does that seem mad?

We save all year round! We have a D/D and just pay into it once a month which covers the cost of the hotel and expenses while we’re there. We don’t miss that money because we’ve done it for ages and it makes life easier when the holiday arrives.

It usually takes about 6 months for us too, so that sounds about right to me.

this year it has taken me ten months to pay my half of our holiday this summer, i do two part time jobs and one is paid weekly and one is paid monthly so when i get my monthly pay give my other half £100 towards the holiday cost as we set a budget of £2000 max

We're just starting to get into the swing of holidays every year now youngest is older and buy each holiday a year in advance and save for the next one all year round. We use Amex to get cheap flights a year in advance etc. I think if holidays are a priority (which they are for me) then all year savings seem logical.

Is it value for money? 3k is a lot for 4 people if you’re all sharing a room.

We don't exactly save for holidays. We save about 1/5 of our household income, partly for bills and partly long term savings, and dip into it if necessary.

Some holidays have hit the savings to the tune of about 3 month's savings, others are mostly covered within the months outgoings and when we get back we dip into savings to stop ourselves going overdrawn at the end of the month if necessary.

Ironically the most expensive trips are to visit my family in the UK, where accommodation is free but flights plus hire car are a lot and then it seems impossible not to spend a lot to avoid just sitting about watching my dad watch reruns of top gear... We live in another EU country and driving or taking the train to a neighboring country and having an actual holiday is always cheaper! Partly because we go to places where there's plenty of free ways to enjoy ourselves rather than ending up shelling out daily to find something to do with the kids in bad weather etc.

I don't think it's mad to save for 6 months for the holiday you want as long as you won't all be miserable and going without day to day during that 6 months though.

Try it for one year - you can always rethink the next year.

Seems reasonable. We didn't have a holiday abroad with the DC until the youngest started school due to childcare costs. DH's cash ISA is for holidays, we pay money in every month but it pays for several trips (this year we've had two trips in the UK with family, a trip to a festival, and a trip to Europe. Obviously the bulk of the money goes to the trip in Europe).

We put £125 each into a savings account every month to save for the next holiday. This usually allows us two weeks all inclusive in the Caribbean or somewhere similar.

Next year we're hoping to go to Japan for my fiance's 40th so will need to save a little extra.

Ok - so it seems reasonable. Thank you for your input.

The £3k holiday is more than we’d generally spend - it’s just I want the first one just our family to be a) special and b) low maintenance as possible so it’s a naice resort, suite with two bedrooms and a good kids club.

I’m currently paying £850 a month childcare depending on holiday clubs etc - that will go down to £200 ish when the free hours kick in so saving £500 will be absolutely fine and we won’t be scrimping.

We save all year round as well, set amount every month

A lot of banks do regular saver accounts where you put a monthly sum in for 12 months in return for a better interest rate regular savers They tend to let you put in £300/400 a month so are quite a handy way of locking away short term savings. I use the hsbc ones for holiday funds.

We save about £1500 per month at the mo - but haven’t had a proper holiday abroad for a few years (young DC) but then we are saving to move house...
I personally think that’s a lot of money for a holiday if you have to spend half the year saving. And come up with spending money! Where is it for?

£1500 a month?!

£1500 a month?!

We actually save more than that but not all of it is long term savings, there's the holiday fund and the house fund as well as the pensions and S&Ss. We do earn well above average though so still live very comfortably.

It took me about 2nyears to save for a holiday abroad. Holiday cost just under 2k. I’ve just got back from and it wiped all my savings so have to start again. The most I can save is probably about £150 a month. But would often have to dip into it for things. Going to start saving that amount again now so it could take a long time before there’s enough for another holiday. Also need to replace my very old car so It may even have to go towards that instead. I feel sad that I might not go on holiday again for a long time.

£1500 a month?!

Yes - £1500 per month.

We don't save specifically for a holiday. We just have a general savings account (separate from the emergency fund) and then we pay into a 'fun fund'. This is to cover days out, birthday parties, petrol for long trips etc. Whatever is left in this will pay for a holiday but that will vary from a few days in the UK to a week abroad. Last year we had enough for a week self catering in Greece, this year just a few days in northern France via ferry

I don't think it's unreasonable to save all year for a holiday and spending money. And I don't think 3k for four people is outrageous. We spent almost 1500 on two so obviously if we had had four in our family it would have been 3k

Oh hang on, do you mean you save £1500 a month in general or just for holidays?

We don’t save specifically for holidays, but we only take a big, expensive trip once every 3 years or so.

Booked and paid deposit last August, final payment last month. Jet2 AI was about £2K.
I like to book early bird deals and spread cost as much as I can.

Ethelfleda will be able to save a bit more each month when Boris brings in his tax cut for higher rate taxpayers.

We save all year round for our hols. We send a bit of our salary every month into an instant saver account. We either have two cheap ones (think camping, seaside b&b sort of level) or one more luxury one - Fiji, Japan, New Zealand (I live in Oz so flights to these places are relatively cheap)

Oh hang on, do you mean you save £1500 a month in general or just for holidays?

Oh sorry - in general!

Ethelfleda will be able to save a bit more each month when Boris brings in his tax cut for higher rate taxpayers

Neither of us are higher rate tax payers, actually. We have a low mortgage and low outgoings...