To think my DH is a miser when it comes to holidays? How much do you spend?

[Pipsquiggle]

We are a relatively high earning household. We earn between £7k and £9k a month net. Have a small mortgage, no debts to pay off, monthly bills but essentially never spend over what we earn (we have saved for so long, we have kept up with this habit)

We both agreed that we needed a foreign holiday where we could relax, so I looked at options for an all inclusive 4/5 stars, pools, kids clubs etc. for 7 days. The quotes I got back were circa £5k to £6k (school holidays, family of 4).

My husband then says 'We can't spend like this every holiday - it will be a 1 off' - which is fair enough, I don't mind camping or hiring a cottage etc.

But then I got thinking - am I taking the mick with this holiday? What do other people spend when they go abroad?

I don't want to start a 'showing off' thread but genuinely How much do you approx earn as a household and how much do you approx spend for a week abroad? This holiday is slightly lower than a month's earnings - is that too much?

Thanks in advance.

We spend one month salary net on holidays per year. That's a 9 day summer holiday abroad in Europe and a family ski holiday.

And looking at all the other posts, spending about one months net salary seems about the norm.

Roughly 4k take home a month.

No major mortgage, but still an expense, but less than 1/4.

2 kids and me and DH just spent 2.5k for a week AI in Egypt, 5*.

We did Cuba 6 years ago and that was 2.5k for 2 weeks AI as well.

We'd be happy to spend upto 4k for the right holiday and 6k for a massive holiday.

But as our wages go up, I imagine that would change. But then, so do the cost of the kids, they get more expensive.

We love all inclusive. All drinks including water free. Can still go out for meals

Doesn’t sound unreasonable to me. We take home around £4.5k a month and would spend around £3-4k on a week’s holiday. This year we are spending around £2.5k for a week bed & breakfast at a Scottish resort hotel that includes activities/kids club and a suite of rooms. No doubt it will cost another thousand or so for meals/activities/petrol so similar to a week abroad. I don’t think spending less than one month of salary on a holiday is unreasonable

Family of 3, £63k per annum. This year have spent 2500 on 7 night abroad 7 nights abroad all inc at 4-5 star rated hotel. Will prob not want to spend much more on that though next year etc

Oh, my budget is per holiday, not trip.

We also aim to get to NYC or Istanbul as a family this year.

And a couple of weekends away, home and possibly abroad, for DH and I.

That is a lot for 1 week, I would expect to pay around 7K for 2 weeks all inclusive.

If you have the disposable income to spend then why not.
Last time we went abroad was our honeymoon and it was under £400 for 2 of us for 3 nights. Never taken our kids abroad and not likely to in the near future, our eldest is 16.

My ILs have just invited us to join them for a villa holiday. My husband is flying with them, and it costs £350 per person for flights, bags, flight meals etc.

I'm flying out separately with some others. For three of us plus airport parking and transfers, it costs £250 total.

You can have the same holiday for wildly different prices.

Our income is about £1-2k lower than yours ( depending on how many days DH works per month), we have one teen DS and we'd usually ( pre covid) spend about £2-3k for a week in October half term as that's when we'd have our holiday abroad. But it wouldn't be AI, maybe including breakfast so we would spend another £1-1.5k on top by the time you add in evening meals and water parks.

We've always baulked from those prices but it sounds about right for AI 4-5 star at a decent place. I guess the key is that you'll have no extra costs on top and your activities all in one place. DH likes variety so even when DS was young it would be more DIY. Plus we'd rather have more holidays that cost less, than one big one. But for a first holiday with DCs and after a period of huge uncertainties about holidays, I'd go for it if it appears to be what you want.

I feel your pain
We like nice holidays...and have similar/higher income.
Like you, my DH doesn't like paying for them.

Ours pretty much all cost £1-1.5k per person per week. That gets you something pretty nice and includes flights, transfers food maybe a day trip or two and a visit to the spa or what not.

My DH complains every bloody time and then I let him look and he finds awful stuff and we compare them and his normally have hidden costs and/or are gross... when challenged he admits it's crap(per) then I then pick the cheapest one from my shortlist, we book it, he complains....then we go and he admits his wife is a genius and the holiday is fan-tastic
AND THEN we have the same shitting conversation next time we plan to go on holiday...

Gosh. Different world. We'd pay £600 on accommodation and self cater. After 2 years of wild camping an £200 a week, dh has requested a bed this year. Nothing booked yet.

I work for the NHS and don't have a lot of leave. Generally 2 long weekends in the summer plus a week away, 10 days at Xmas, pd days for youngest, I'm all out of leave.

Given your finances it would not seem extravagant to me.

Does he ever splurge on anything? I would wonder if it's just his natural outlook. Otherwise if he's happy to buy himself luxury stuff (cars, tech, the elusive secret expensive hobby etc) it might be it doesn't feel value for money to him, as child-centred holidays aren't always particularly relaxing.

We have childcare bill at minute but in future at most I’d look to spend is a months salary on a really nice (at least a week) away and 2 long weekends away per year (prob UK or not too far city break). I’d do long haul too but would stay with family (states) or not go all inclusive to save etc.

If you camp or hire a cottage, who does the work of cooking and cleaning?

If it's you...

We're stingy but even I've drawn the line now at going on holiday to do the same work but with less tools.

Just had the same debate with DH.

Holiday of a lifetime that we can easily afford and without touching savings...... but I may as well have suggested a week on the Moon.

I'm tempted to book and go alone, tbh.

I last went on an actual holiday about three years ago. Two adults, one toddler. We went to a lovely all inclusive family hotel in Austria. Not during peak season, though....and we drove there. Paid about 2k for the week.
We have a cottage booked in the UK for Easter for two weeks. Also about 2k. We'll drive there, too. In the meantime, we might fly to the UK for a weekend in a few weeks but that's only because we couldn't go at Christmas and DH is desperate. DS will be fully vaccinated by then, so no quarantine requirement when we get home. Still hoping they'll drop the isolation requirement. It'll be a right pita if we only stay for a weekend.

We don't go on holiday very often, though. The last time DS was on a plane was when he was 3 months old. He's 5 now.
We've got a big house with a garden and a pool here, so no need to go anywhere else to "switch off". The weather is usually quite good during the summer (between 25 and 40 degrees) and we've got snow during the winter. Our income is similar to yours.

Our annual holiday budget is 75% of one month net income but we are saving hard and overpaying the mortgage a lot at the mo. It'll be more in the future when the world opens up a bit!

Similar household income to you. I'd have no qualms spending £5-6k on a holiday, but we don't holiday abroad for environmental reasons and it tends to be cheaper to stay in the UK anyway. I'd begrudge scrimping on a holiday when money isn't an issue and hell will freeze over before I'll be caught camping

The last holiday we had with the kids in 2019 cost about €6000. We did a 7 night Baltic cruise, 2 days in Legoland Bilund and stayed the rest of the time with family in Denmark, and had days out etc.
We had planned it for a few years and it was totally worth it.
2 years earlier we spend about €5000 on an all inclusive fortnight in Spain. It was not worth it.

We've also done a few eurocamp holidays in Italy which were lovely and fairly reasonably priced, €3500ish.

We wouldn't have an expensive holiday every year but it's lovely when we do.

@ShinyMe

I think I spend about one month's salary per year all in on holidays, maybe a bit less.

Same here.

I think if your outgoings allow it it's worth it for that break away from it all.

Work hard - play hard.

Absolutely amazed at what people spend on hols. Spend around two weeks income for one week self-catering in the UK (and that covers all costs, spending money, food and accommodation ).

We don’t have kids but it’s so variable.

Last year we only took one domestic holiday and that was about £4-5k for accommodation, activities, eating out etc. for a week on the coast.

In 2020, we went to Jordan for about 10 day and to Sicily for about the same duration. Those were about £9k and £6k respectively.

2019 was a slightly mad year but included trips to Thailand, US + Mexico, Greece and Italy (plus India to visit family) and we probably spent about £25-30k over the course of the year on holidays. Fortunate, really, since we couldn’t have seen COVID and the travel restrictions coming!

We don’t scrimp on holidays but we can afford that (for now).

(Just to say the mad year in 2019 included our honeymoon)

£120 k gross. We spend about £3.5 k. That is about £2.5 k on something abroad in non-covid times and the rest on 2 holiday camp type holidays. (2 DCs). DH has a stupid expensive holiday though (sailing) and that costs us about £12 k a year. So I get very very very cross about it when he moans about our holidays.