AIBU to say you can't afford to go abroad on NMW?

[AlphaBravoCharlieDeltaEchOFoxt]

If you are a working parent how do you afford to go on holiday abroad?

My teenagers and toddler have never been abroad. Family of five. I want to change this and COVID or no COVID I want to save up for an overseas holiday. How can people on the national minimum wage budget so they can go abroad? Please advise! Or am I right in thinking that if you earn NMW you cannot go abroad on holiday?

Yes - I am BU and it can be done on NMW.
No - YANBU and it cannot be done on NMW.

I think its not as straightforward as that. It depends on where you live so what your housing costs are and whether you have debts. Also your ability to save and be regimented with that. You might be best off saving for a cheap n cheerful all inclusive holiday. If you do your research there can be some great places. My cheapest all inclusive holiday had THE best food plus loads of activities for kids

It's not just about what you earn, it's about your other outgoings. By family of five I assume it's two adults and three children? If both parents working full time on NMW I don't see why not, unless you have a big mortgage, debt etc. Going abroad can often be cheaper than a UK holiday if you get the right deal early enough and pay it in stages.

5 x passport
5x insurance
5x covid tests abroad & at home
If you went outside of all school holiday times
It might be affordable

Can you afford a holiday in your home country ? Without all the added extras above

What about a home sway ?

Does the school provide abroad school trips ?

Home swap

Well that rather depends if you have any spare money at the end of the month. If you do, then yes, you can, if you don’t, then clearly you can’t.

Look at Megabus, you can pre book trips abroad very cheaply

Or travel by train, visit the cities during the day & sleep on the train to save accommodation costs

pre covid we always went to turkey....lovely and cheap or did ryanair flights to portugal...25 return and apt from booking,com...budapest is cheap also and very nice.

Just depends doesn't it.

Holidays abroad aren't compulsory, not are they the only option.

We've done holidays on a shoestring before. Saved up for them for months and months. Only one adult went with DS on the Disney Trip, to save costs, but give him the opportunity.

But, we've also had plenty of camping/caravan holidays, where we spent the week in Cornwall, Suffolk, Norfolk, Devon etc. Where we had packed lunches on the beach, where we'd stay most of the day as it's free, and bought an ice-cream for the boy or shared a portion of chips between the 3 of us. He'd be given £5 pocket money for the week to get whatever he liked. Would scout out humble sales/car boots betc for things like wetsuits/body boards, he had one bucket and spade that lasted from when he was 6 months until he was 12!

I think the most affordable way would be to go camping in France, if you have a car - take the ferry and then drive. That was my first experience of a holiday abroad as a teenager, and I loved it - going on the ferry with a car stuffed with camping gear was part of the adventure (I’m not sure my dad enjoyed driving on the other side of the road so much, but we survived). I enjoyed our English holidays a lot too though. My kids haven’t been abroad yet either but still get really excited about going camping somewhere new every year - we’ve stayed in some amazing places in this country, and it’s affordable.

We are a family of 5. We don’t have passports. We both work in decent jobs. Household income circa 50k. Holidays abroad just don’t feature in our doable list.

As a five things get much more expensive. Even premier inns now we need two rooms. Luckily we live in a tourist area and whilst we avoid the peak season and become hermit like we do have a lot of free or low cost things available to us.

It depends on your outgoings and what type of holiday you’re thinking of.

An all inclusive, four star waterpark hotel in Tenerife will probably be too expensive.

But if you can get a random Ryanair flight to the middle of nowhere in Spain, that leaves at 6am and drops you off 80km away from the nearest city. Midweek and outside of school holidays. Without extra luggage, so everyone just puts three sets of clothes in a backpack that you’ll wash overnight during the holiday. You hire a car or get a bus to a little town where you’ve booked some cheap accommodation, 6 months+ before going. You eat from the local supermarket or bar and spend your days visiting the local and museums, forests and going to the beach. Then yes, definitely doable.

You can go abroad for a week for £200-250 per person, but it won’t be a luxurious experience, just cheap and cheerful. £50 max on a return flight, £100 pp for an apartment, top up with cheap food. Passport costs will be high to start with though, if you don’t have them already.

I’m a single parent and have been abroad twice in the past 10 years (covid included).

Lots of people can go every year but when you don’t get much money in takes double the time to save so around 2-3 years to save.

It’s often a lot more expensive holidaying in the Uk especially somewhere like Cornwall, as long as you have the passports etc already, if not that’s the first thing I’d start saving for.

Self catering is cheaper too as you can buy a load of cheap stuff from the local supermarket.

It depends. You probably can’t afford expensive all inclusive resorts but you can get a nice tent or mobile home on a European campsite to sleep 6 for a few hundred quid and then depending on where you go flights could be cheap or you could even drive or get a coach. We’ve done a few of this type of holiday and had a great time

I earn considerably more than NMW and so does my DH. we’ve not been abroad for 13 years and I can’t imagine we’ll ever be able to afford to. But I’m here for the tips cos I feel really awful that my children haven’t ever had a proper holiday (bar camping)

As a single parent I took my son abroad from when he was about 1 till he was 15/16
Look at JET 2 they do single parent deals
So you and your DH book as separate bookings one of you with 2 kids and one of you with one kid
This way you often get a child price and a free child place and you get two rooms

I think you can go abroad on NMW but you've chosen (I presume no trauma) to be a family of 5.

We decided to only have 2 children partly because we do value a bit more of the 'luxuries' in life. Raising a child to 18 costs something like £150,000 (can't remember, but you can google it) and I guess everyone's choices do stem from that decision first and foremost. Not saying it's right or wrong but with 3 children you've made a different decision to those people with 1 or 2 kids

Family of 5, you've chosen or not choseN that situation. That's why you can't afford to go abroad.

@MojoJojo71

It depends. You probably can’t afford expensive all inclusive resorts but you can get a nice tent or mobile home on a European campsite to sleep 6 for a few hundred quid and then depending on where you go flights could be cheap or you could even drive or get a coach. We’ve done a few of this type of holiday and had a great time

Not in school holidays

@Handsnotwands

I earn considerably more than NMW and so does my DH. we’ve not been abroad for 13 years and I can’t imagine we’ll ever be able to afford to. But I’m here for the tips cos I feel really awful that my children haven’t ever had a proper holiday (bar camping)

What's "a proper holiday"???

We just paid £13 return each for flights to Budapest.

@00100001 something that isn’t 3 nights in a tent in a soggy field which is the properest holiday we’ve had in over a decade

Despite some previous posters saying that you chose to have 5 and implying that therefore you can’t afford to go abroad, I think that’s rubbish! Having three children, you will, of course, have higher expenses than those with two, one or zero! But that doesn’t mean you can’t abroad.

It may take saving, it’ll take being savvy with booking things, but it can be done. Depending on where you are in the country I would suggest you consider a ferry to the continent (Holland if nears the North East), France if you are near the south. You could then drive on from either of those places to other countries if you would prefer.

Look at cheap flights, look at campsites, look at self catering.