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.

Similar income and similar husband!

We take it in turns - one year he picks the holiday and the next I do. We usually have one two week holiday and one week plus a couple of short breaks/ weekends.

When DH chooses it is self catering in the U.K. but when I choose it is abroad and full board/ AI.

Tbh I think £6k/ week for a family of 4 AI in school holidays is pretty much par for the course - yes, you probably can get cheaper but I do think it is generally worth paying the bit extra.

I find U.K. holidays a complete rip off - we usually go SC and to get a decent cottage/ apartment in Devon/ Cornwall costs at least £1500 a week and then the petrol/ food/ attractions prices means you spend another £500- £1000 a week too. At least with AI you know your costs are pretty much covered.

@KohlaParasaurus

That sounds like a very reasonable amount for a family with your household income to spend on an annual holiday abroad. The additional cost of a good hotel and things for the children to do over a change of kitchen for you and the need to hire a car is relatively small.

I suppose we all vary in whether we see holidays as "money down the drain" or "a great investment in experiences". Pre-pandemic, DH and I struggled to stay within a holiday budget of £6000pa, which was about 15% of our household income after tax (no mortgage or other debts). We're not tied to school holidays and most of our trips are just the two of us.

What do you spend 6K on? We're both homebodies and don't do 'relaxing' holidays so would never spend that in Europe. I've been to most places anyway (on a student/grad income), DP not really interested. I know a lot of people like city breaks, or to stay in luxury hotels wining and dining. I might go on a restaurant tour at most, again not DP as he's very fussy

We would however spend >6K on a 'new experience' holiday. Japan or the US on our list. Also parts of West Africa.

Depends on your savings goals. If you plan to pay for your DC to go to uni, then £5k/yr in holidays may not be feasible. But if you plan for your DC to take on £80k+ debt in student tuition and maintenance loans for uni, then £5k/yr in holidays could be alright.

Obviously the above is just an illustrative example. But what you should do is instead of asking random internet strangers what we spend on our holidays, you should be having a family finance meeting with your DH. Go through your income, outgoings and where you are in relation to your agreed on savings goals together. Perhaps he is being overly cautious in reaction to inflation and cost of living increases, or perhaps you are overly optimistic. You won’t know who is reasonable until you both sit down, go through your finances and discuss things.

"We are a relatively high earning household."

Fixed that for you.

It's not unreasonable to spend less than your monthly household income on an annual holiday.

And I agree that all inclusive plus kids club will make it relaxing. Self-catering holidays with kids are a change and most definitely not a rest!

It's a lot to me but everyone's different.

We spend about 2-4% of our gross annual income on holidays.

We are high earners. Typical holidays might be:

• a week in a French gite etc outside peak season (but sch holidays. Easter etc). Self catered, not loads of meals out.
• UK self catered in peak season - another week

Tbf though we don't like using childcare on holiday so we wouldnt really do hotels & kids clubs etc, those can be £££, self catered can be very cheap by comparison

When do they go back - the final week of August can often be cheaper. Check out if they have any inset days added on as well. Ours used to add two onto May Half term - brilliant for cheaper holidays (we now have a two week half term which also helps).

Look at whether a Monday to Monday is cheaper and take a day off from school - in our county its 5 days and for me a day or two extra onto a half term is fine in Primary (much much harder in High School). DD has a day added onto her Feb half term (Year 8) so DS will just have an unaunthorised day off

That said if you have that kind of income just go for it. I think your DH would have a heart attack if he knew how much I spent!

9K take home a month here, holidays are £6k - 7K for the main one and then probs another £3k-£4K on smaller ones.
But they are important to us and higher up the list than other things

Similar income here, maybe sightly more as have no mortgage as paid off. Last holiday was 10k in oct but that was Mauritius 4 days for 2 weeks so £6k for one week somewhere does seem steep. But absolutely the right ball park for a holiday on your income! We did a splurge just before lockdown and we’re away for 3 weeks in Abu Dhabi and Maldives (that was £20k). We’ve also done for Croatia for 3k for 2 weeks and loved it. We’ve been all over the world with the kids and it’s all about value. For instance we looked at Cyprus last oct and it was £8k for 2 week holiday which seemed a rip off so we thought it better to pay a little more and go to Mauritius (which was amazing). Would highly recommend finding a good independent travel advisor, we have one who books all our holidays and she’s fab

Our household income is £3k a month and we spend £6k a year on holidays.

If it makes you feel better, I quite fancy a stay at the four seasons in Hampshire and had a mild fit when I saw you’d be looking at £1200 a night minimum for a family of 4 without dinner etc included. Makes your week away look like excellent value.

A monthly income of about 11k. It’s all relative. If it’s a holiday we all really love, like 2 weeks in Florida (Disney World, not even staying on site) it can cost 15k which is an unreasonable amount of money really, but oh the memories.. Otherwise we can just go away a long weekend somewhere. Everything is so expensive.

@BridStar

Sack off the all-inclusive - who wants to eat rubbery hotel food every night? Go out and about, visit restaurants. And sack off kids clubs too. I don't take my kids on holiday to be fobbed off in a dismal nursery - they come with us an join in!

Last year we went to one of the Ikos resorts. It’s AI, some of the best food I have ever eaten in my entire life, over 400 wines included in AI, most water sports included, free use of a car, It was 5*+++ but it came at a cost. Not a rubbery food to be seen. My kids are far too old for kids clubs but spent hours on the water sports, football pitch, tennis courts …

We’ve done the Villa and eating out in lovely villages and exploring holidays. Love them, we are doing it next year but a really high end AI is definitely not to be sniffed at if you want a great hotel and can pay the price

That is a fairly standard cost of a school holiday sunshine resort holiday, and it's hardly an unusual thing to do so of course yanbu. Similarly my OH doesn't share it as a priority, so we only do it every few years. But we have several short UK breaks and festivals instead that probably works out even more expensive. Tickets to family festivals cost around £200 each for adults, similar for teens, but less for children, add on petrol and obscene festival food prices. Other UK breaks like Center Parcs are even more expensive than abroad. I enjoy camping and festivals and UK breaks too, but I find it frustrating my partner is horrified at the cost of one type but not the other shorter UK breaks, which are more stressful because you have to pack three times as much for less holiday.

Monthly net income of 5.5k. We're going Butlins in half term and it does us just fine 🤣

In all seriousness, my DH is European born so we tend to drive to his family via different routes, staying at places along the way and on the way back. No idea what we spend but definitely not as high as a big blowout holiday. We still spend a lot on travel though as we like to see his family a couple of times a year.

We're not big luxury blowout type holiday people. We do short breaks several times a year, all usually last min (planned and booked up to 6 weeks before). At the moment that's been mostly UK-based but would like to do more European trips. We had quite a fun 6 night one across Wales last year, switching accommodation every 2 nights and travelling across Wales.

In my view holidays can be as big and small as you make it, ditto to memories.

@EmpressCixi

Depends on your savings goals. If you plan to pay for your DC to go to uni, then £5k/yr in holidays may not be feasible. But if you plan for your DC to take on £80k+ debt in student tuition and maintenance loans for uni, then £5k/yr in holidays could be alright.

No - I can pay uni fees and a big holiday. I am not and never will pay university fees for my kids. It’s absolutely not something we would consider. I top up the minimal loan but it’s important they invest in their own education. I know only 1 family (all our friends are very high earners) who are stumping up for fees and even their kids are taking the loans.

Household income just over £4k per month net.
Pre covid circa £3k all inclusive plus £400 spending money, but then would have had a couples city break also for around £1000 including spending money. Maybe another night at a cheapy premier inn as well to see a show in the nearest city.
So roughly one months income.

This year we are planning to spend more as are doing a big cruise for a special birthday so I reckon our weeks family holiday will be about £6500 as a one off. Justifying it cos we haven’t been away abroad since 2019

Agree Bunnycat, as does the £1,000 tiny two bedroomed holiday cottage in Northumberland in the summer holidays.

Nice but you can't guarantee the weather and have to drive everywhere and cook, buy wetsuits to swim in the sea, new beach tent, microfibre towels/blankets, did a Cook order for half the week, etc., etc.. at the end of it all = £2k for a week in a nice cottage in the rain.

All of a sudden the luxe collection £3-3.5 k for a week away, no cooking, pleasant weather etc seems not a bad deal at all.

I've just booked two holidays in the U.K.

One is for a long weekend in April in a luxury cottage with attached hotel & spa for £1.6k

The other is two weeks self-catering in a cottage in Cornwall in July for £7k.

We've spent as much as £20k for two weeks when we went to America and the Caribbean. I would say holidays to Spain/Greece usually set us back about £10k for accommodation and flights - we usually stay in a villa in "nice" parts.

I think a week abroad for £6k all inclusive sounds pretty good. Your dh is a tight git.

I could never understand the appeal of AI until I had three young children. Then when I realised it would mean not having to entertain them while waiting for food to cook, no worrying about spilt drinks or dropped ice creams, no having to spend time reading out menus, no worrying if they would like what they chose... Plus more opportunity for them to try new food. Food available all day long so no worries if someone sleeps through a meal. The AI we've been to have had lots of fresh local food as well as the standard cheap stuff. It also means knowing the cost up front, not worrying about saving for spends. Going AI doesn't mean you can't eat locally too on days out.

@Bluebluemoon39

I've just booked two holidays in the U.K.

One is for a long weekend in April in a luxury cottage with attached hotel & spa for £1.6k

The other is two weeks self-catering in a cottage in Cornwall in July for £7k.

We've spent as much as £20k for two weeks when we went to America and the Caribbean. I would say holidays to Spain/Greece usually set us back about £10k for accommodation and flights - we usually stay in a villa in "nice" parts.

I think a week abroad for £6k all inclusive sounds pretty good. Your dh is a tight git.

I love a spa hotel weekend! Have tried loads, relaxing by the pool/swimming is ace.

@Bunnycat101

I have had afternoon tea there. It is very nice but not sure if it £1.2k nice!

I don’t spend near as much on a holiday unless going long haul, but then I hate all inclusive, am not limited to school holidays and don’t look for 5* quality.

My rough budget for going abroad (short haul) is:
Flights - under £100 pp to include bags of high season, under £50 if off season.
Accommodation - looking at under £30-40 pp per night. I’ll stay 20 mins away on the train if it’s much cheaper. I don’t care how luxurious it is as long as it’s clean and safe.
Food - street food, McDonald’s type of places and supermarket snacks, with the odd ‘proper’ meal at a restaurant. Similar budget to home
Attractions - select 2-3 paid-for ones and everything else do for free - eg museums, parks, lots of walking to get to know the cities…

I’m lucky that I can get a beach holiday for free whenever I want as I come from Spain and parents still live 5 mins away from a lovely sandy beach. Flights are £70-80 return.

Everything else is a city holiday. Which tends to be much cheaper than a beach holiday with kids club. But I appreciate these aren’t always easy with young children.

I’m looking at ‘splashing out’ on going to Canada with some friends this summer. We’re looking at £400 each for flights (will do layovers and get up at 2am if needed), £100 local transport, £200 accommodation and another £2-300 on food and spends. £1k for 8-10 days, all spends included.

It all depends, I’ve got 2 incomes no kids and we prioritise holidays. Assuming no Covid I’d happily spend upward of £15k a year on a similar net take home and potentially more this year given the restrictions for the last couple of years. But clearly this is privileged position to be in as I don’t need a big house so have a small mortgage

If I earned what you do I would absolutely not be camping under any circumstsnces.
The holiday you describe sounds perfectly reasonable.
There is always snobbery on here about AI holidays. I think it boils down to people not being able to afford it or wanting to go for the cheaper option of self catering.
I don't go on holiday to cook, clean, tidy up. I'd rather stay in my own home than do that.

@EileenGC

I don’t spend near as much on a holiday unless going long haul, but then I hate all inclusive, am not limited to school holidays and don’t look for 5* quality.

My rough budget for going abroad (short haul) is:
Flights - under £100 pp to include bags of high season, under £50 if off season.
Accommodation - looking at under £30-40 pp per night. I’ll stay 20 mins away on the train if it’s much cheaper. I don’t care how luxurious it is as long as it’s clean and safe.
Food - street food, McDonald’s type of places and supermarket snacks, with the odd ‘proper’ meal at a restaurant. Similar budget to home
Attractions - select 2-3 paid-for ones and everything else do for free - eg museums, parks, lots of walking to get to know the cities…

I’m lucky that I can get a beach holiday for free whenever I want as I come from Spain and parents still live 5 mins away from a lovely sandy beach. Flights are £70-80 return.

Everything else is a city holiday. Which tends to be much cheaper than a beach holiday with kids club. But I appreciate these aren’t always easy with young children.

I’m looking at ‘splashing out’ on going to Canada with some friends this summer. We’re looking at £400 each for flights (will do layovers and get up at 2am if needed), £100 local transport, £200 accommodation and another £2-300 on food and spends. £1k for 8-10 days, all spends included.

How do you find such cheap flights?