To wonder how people afford holidays!

[Dreaming34]

I mustn’t be budgeting very well on food etc and me and my DH have a joint income of 75k, we really struggle at the end of every month and we cannot afford to go on holiday! Everything is so expensive really we are really struggling

Do you have any family or friends who you could stay with for a holiday, if you can't adfford a hotel?

We're planning on spending some time with my family in France this year, combining some time with them with the holiday. We'll maybe manage a couple of nights along the coast for ourselves while we are there.

The estate agent that came to value my flat in london told me that he and his GF are on 80k. He is a young guy, graduated in 2017. girlfriend probably around the same age.

DH and I are on 90k combined, no kids. There are people like my MIL who are on as low as 14k in London but manage ok as they have a paid up house. I suspect the stats are extremely skewed because of people like her who managed to buy in the 1990s (where large swathes of London were not seen as desirable family areas and lower paid workers managed to edge their way in). Many of them still live there. As well as people who lived in shared accommodation, HMOs etc. London has a young population; you would have a fair bit of disposable income if you were on 40k and renting a room/living with family. Its quite a different life if you are trying to run a household. I think the people who are in OP's category- multiple children, owner occupier, not on benefits, below 40- in London would earn much more than 30k to 40k on average, probably triple that.

Do you have car finance on the go monthly too? If you have 2 cars on that, it can be like 2 mortgages too. Avoiding that can make a massive difference to other expenses and things you can afford.

Often people say they can’t get out of car finance and expensive payments which over time are far more than buying outright. It’s true it’s hard to escapades the ongoing trap, if you’ve got zero in savings. However, given some focus and time it can be escaped, giving more financial freedom. I can explain how people can do that if anyone’s interested, but won’t bother unless anyone actually is. Some people find thought they can save £250 or £500 or more on their monthly outgoings. Not to be sneezed at.

credit cards are not inherently bad though. We use ours for literally everything. We get points to be used for trips. The Cards are paid off monthly.
The problem is when people only pay the minimum but keep spending the max

Some of it really is about prioritisation. You probably value the 52 weeks of food shopping and small treats over being a bit more controlled and having a holiday. There isn’t really a right or wrong. Some people see a holiday as essential and budget for it like a bill.

I prioritise holidays over eg nice car. I drive a (great) fiesta bought second hand for £8k. I have a foreign holiday every year. I saw a programme featuring a woman struggling with finances who paid £340 a month on her car. Mine cost £135 a month after I traded in a very old fiesta and got £1600 off. I’ve saved up and paid off the loan early. That £200 difference per month would have solved her problems.

I’ve had friends ask why I don’t have a ‘nice ‘ car. The simple answer is that no one actually needs a ‘nice’ car. You might want one but you don’t need one. If you’ve had 3 kids with car seats that was your choice. I stopped at 2 so I didn’t need a big car. Instead we have great holidays.

I am very lucky - plenty of people can’t have either, so I apologise if you are in that situation. But some of the people I know who say they can’t afford a holiday have a new i phone every two years , every tv subscription channel going and regular takeaways and nights out. We don’t have those - my current phone is 6 years old, last one lasted for 12 years, and I will never prioritise a new sofa, car, TV, carpet etc over a holiday.

I haven't read most of the other replies, but our family income is 40% of yours and we shop in Tesco. We spend 60-70 pound a week for 2 adults two children. I do click and collect and have a Clubcard, so I look on the app and do my shop on there it is so helpful! You can pick out the Clubcard offers and I usually pick things for treats that are on offer this way. I used to go to the shop and not track the spend but doing it this way helps so much and it's so easy!

We have a similar income. We can afford to go on holiday, but not expensive breaks. This year it is a short break in a static caravan on the welsh coast, and a week in an inexpensive log cabin in Scotland.

One of my colleagues is always on holiday, and has DC too.

Hopefully it'll get easier when the childcare bills reduce.

Although we manage to save money for holidays, we never manage to save money for renovating our house. We have just learnt to live with it as is.

I agree - everything is so expensive.

We have just booked a 3-night break to Italy (for 4 of us in September). I was expecting it to be 2k ish, it was over 5k and it's not even a nice hotel.

I can quite believe this. We are in south east.

im on £60k and husband is on £30k. We have 3 kids, including twins. Nursery fees have destroyed us. We had to buy a new car. We are in so much debt from paying 3 x nursery fees when I was on half my salary.

food is loads, mortgage just gone up to £800. Just things like school uniform, 3x shoes for school, new car seats as they grow, car repairs… they destroy us.

Just looked up to go to uk holiday… we need to hire a car big enough for us all. We were quoted £1600 for three days. We can’t manage it.

i’m not happy in my job and dont Feel safe at all. I’m worried, really worried.

been looking at retraining or getting a school hours job but just can’t afford it. Some I’ve seen are 13k a year. It’s insanity.

We asked bank if they would lend us more to move (we’ve only owned one house since we got together) and basically the bank would lend us £350k… so not enough round here at all. Not worth moving. This would also require us to be completely debt free.

I feel physically sick most of the time. I want to enjoy my kids but I just can’t afford it. So I work full time in a job that could go at any point.

I really can't tell the difference. Its why we shop at Aldi.

Unless you are paying a very high mortgage or childcare then you should easily have a holiday on that income.

our household income is 55k and we go to florida every single year, during school holidays, usually for more than two weeks. Definitely need to look at your budget there

@Dreaming34 you will be a lot better off. I had a conversation with a friend at work about how come we got to go on a couple of holidays and she didnt - and then she had to concede that she paid for her eldest to go to Private School.

That and clearly indiscriminate spending in the supermarket will make it

Agree that if your income is decent there are quite simply choices.

Those on low incomes don’t face many choices at the moment and would look on this thread enviously.

Yes, some choose to spend more on food/energy/days out through the year and accept the consequence is no holidays. Others don’t make an active choice to do this, but essentially by lack of planning and thought end up spending on food/energy/days out to an extent that nothing is left.

Op clearly wants a holiday…so presumably she’s not in the category of having actively chosen to spend on food/days out realising it means no holidays. However, insisting on wanting to have that level of food/leisure spending AND wanting holidays is where the slack of realism comes in. That income isn’t sufficient for both. So Op can choose to adjust the weekly spends and then she can have a holiday too, or accept that the current spending is what she values more,…and there won’t be holidays. Her choice.

I’d say again, how valuable growing a buffer of at least £5-10k is. It means so many spends can be done outright and not on mo they payment plans and means more monthly income available to save/spend over time. It also gives huge peace of mind that the cash is there for there’s a vet bill, boiler breakdown, car breakdown, holiday pops up. The mental stress of living payday to payday is a ‘cost’ of not building a buffer when the income is pretty good, that’s not worth the few extra rounds of ice creams at £20 in my book. But often when people are used to living this way, it feels like the norm and no alternative is posssible. Often if income is low an alternative isn’t possible, but it is at £75k.

Use that, 600 a month, that’s a £7200 holiday budget. You’re not going to get a long haul trip out of it, but you’ll definitely get a couple of weeks in the sun somewhere

Our joint income is less than yours (around 60k) but we feel quite similar. We try to save a little each month for a cheap UK holiday in term time not sure how we'll do it once DD starts school

The trips where I go too don’t cost much more money.

We do it by booking our flights really far in advance and never book package holidays.

On the day that flight dates and times are released my husband sets his alarm for 3am, as that’s when the flights are available to see and book online, and books them at hardly any cost.

And although we book our flights really far in advance, we do the opposite with our hotels and book them really close to going, usually only about 2 months before we fly out - sometimes just one month. We then get the rooms at a really good “last minute” price.

We also arrange our own airplane to hotel transfers etc

YANBU - everything is so expensive! Even camping you need to buy all the equipment, although once you have it there are some very cheap lovely campsites around - we went to a beautiful one in Devon last year which was about £30 per night over half term. No facilities beyond the toilets and showers though - we were lucky that the weather was great or it would have been crap.

We are fortunate to be on a larger income and it still feels expensive! Currently looking at going to the Balearics next year and it’s going to be about £3,000 for a week.

Yup south east and I can understand! The cost of running anything other than a small house is extortionate here and with everything else costing more too… the only way we can afford holidays this year is because I’ve gone back to work part-time as our children are now both at school. We’re not used to my wage, it’s not part of our monthly budget/bills, it’s also not reliably the same every month. But whatever I earn goes towards holidays. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to afford it, and my husband is a high earner.

Also… holidays now cost roughly double what they used to cost too 😱

Princess, do you have any buffer of savings?
On a standard month, what is money regularly going out on (apart from food and standard bills) that is finance - ie cars, phones etc?

Are you good at bargain hunting? Ie are you aware of the Startrite sales website where you can often buy new Startrite school shoes for less than £20 instead of £45-50?

The key really is to scrape together a buffer. And then you need to be able to maintain it, so it’s not egularly decimated to zero by needing a car or new boiler or set of school uniforms. Each month, even in the months where there are big expenses, probably for 2 years you need to save more than you spend. Some years, after you’ve just had the newer car, this is possible.

Are you buying the school uniform when there are summer sales and deals available? Buying just enough rather than lots of spares? Buying at least some of it secondhand and handing down to your kids? Are you selling on their old clothes/toys/equipment? Reducing your supermarket bill by trying at least 5 products each week in a ‘lower’ range and then sticking with those that are okay? Shopping around for utilities and insurances each year? Considering cheaper childcare provider? There can be cope in downsizing property to reduce mortgage if a smaller hosue is doable for you, even if not what you’d like. What can you do too, so that in future one or both of you bring in more money? For now though, it’s about reducing outgoings. Sometimes switching from a lease car at £300 per month to an 8 year old car you buy for a £4K car loan and repay over 2 years, is the thing that can tip the balance in terms of saving perhaps ar £100-150 per month whilst the loans being paid off and then £300 per month after it’s finished…..as long as you stick with that car for a few more years.

Horrible to feel so stressed. You have to live within your means and £90k is clearly a good income. But oerhaos your expectations are too high and you do need to reduce some extra curricular (not to nothing but cheaper things) and reduce socialising etc. These might feel like the norm and that you’re entitled to them at your income, but if things are so tight, 6 months i
or a year of seriously cutting back consciously can turn things round and mean that stress goes.

I think air travel is about to go up more and cheap flights will be scarcer

Hearing news tonight re easyJet

When OP is better off by £600 nursery fees, it would seem daft to spend it on a £7200 holiday.

Firstly, the gain is rarely as big as people think (sorry) as there are often wrap around childcare costs with school. It’s less but not zero.

Wouldn’t it be better to decide to have £1.5-£2k for a holiday and to start building the buffer, so that in future one-off expenses don’t ruin the family, and they can have cheaper cars, mobiles etc as they don’t have to take mo they finance deals?

The short term approach is to spend anything that comes up as a sudden extra…ie savings from nursery fees ending. Then the position is exactly as now. The more savvy thing is to have some kind of treat, but to use the rest to improve the financial position. Not as exciting, but gives more choices and options for holidays in future.

It really is Jam today or Jam tomorrow.

Op on your income try a month where you really budget. No spontaneous purchases, no clothing, no ice creams out etc. I bet by the end of the month you’d have a lot left over towards a holiday. Just try it for a month and see how it goes.

@ImplementingTheDennisSystem

erm they will do yeah cos they have two kids!

totally different if you don’t