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

We just book with Love holidays, pay it off £100-300 per week. Booked our 3rd trip for August in May, nearly paid already.
Thinking about more hols in September-October.
Once it's booked it's a great motivator to work and earn the money.👍

So up to 1.2 p/m. What do you do that you can 'just earn more'?

I have an income of 36k. Rent is is 5k. 2 teens at home.

I still manage to get 2 holidays abroad a year and a break in the uk.

Devonian
Do you travel during school holidays?

Take on more business, work weekends instead of ignoring the calls.
DP is a head buyer but she does cleaning part time at the weekend too. She's just taken on another property.

Book way in advance- we have just had to add one extra day to our holiday due to moved flight, and it’s cost a lot. Car hire and accommodation is up to 3 times as much now

Choosing to spend £100 a week on gymnastics and £20 on ice cream is probably where you're going wrong. Most people can afford holidays on that salary because they're actually careful with where they choose to spend money

I save a little each month. But my children are adults now. We used to be able to get great deals for abroad when it was £1800 for the 4 of us. Booked a year in advance and paid monthly. Or we’d do caravan holidays.

As I was part time, I used to pick up extra hours and take that out and into the holiday fund.

I still save £50 a month for Christmas. And any overtime goes into the holiday savings.

Consider getting a British Airways credit card. Gets you Avios on all you spend, soon adds up to free flights, and that can make a huge difference to the cost of a holiday, especially going long haul.

Get an American Express British airways, coloectvairmile you can convert nectar points into airmiles.

I have a regular wage of £24k and an ad-hoc wage of about £4k which I try not to rely on as it can fluctuate massively, so that's the holiday money.
Husband doesn't work which has saved us thousands in childcare, but it means we have a lot less than most.
I don't drink or smoke (husband does)
We don't go out for meals, takeaways are maybe once or twice a month.
Try to take a pack up for my lunch, kids always have packed lunch, definitely nothing like grabbing a Costa (easier as they're aren't any where we live/work.)
The kids stopped activities during COVID and except for one having a music lesson once a fortnight they don't do anything. So that was about £100 a month, now £32.

We'll have 2 UK holidays this year and if the travel industry gets its act together a foreign holiday. We try to do foreign holidays every other year.

Our income is half yours and we go on a holiday abroad every year by paying for it monthly, usually by direct debit. It just becomes another bill to be paid and we budget for it around everything else. This way it’s never on credit either.

We also go fully inclusive so we don’t have to budget for food money or much spending money whilst on holiday. .

I'm sure it's about where you are in life.
Mortgage, childcare etc.
Then needing to budget what's important to you.
Ice cream in the park takeaways mega food shops.. £10 here and there for nothing.
Maybe a full 0 based budget will help.

Well I think you've answered your own question somewhat, you choose to spend your disposable income on expensive children's activities and buying lots of branded (and possibly unnecessary) food shops. We have a big (to us) mortgage payment every month (£1100 pm on a £250k mortgage) and two lots of council tax to pay, but that is on a property that we own 80% of the equity. We also have horses (moneypits), 2 children who do an awful lot of sport, and we run two cars. However we do still manage to afford holidays, but probably not every year however luckily my parents take us on a skiing and a summer holiday every year anyway. In answer to your question though, I think lots of people afford holidays by going on very cheap all inclusive holidays to big hotels in Spain, Greece or turkey - we prefer to save up and go to a villa with a private pool and have a hire car somewhere a bit more off the beaten track. We have friends who put everything on credit cards, including holidays, and while that's scary to me I'm sure there are lots of people who do the same, then pay it off over a couple of years juggling the debt around.

Shop in other places. ALDI, Lidl. Even in Tesco , buy Tesco own brand.
Why are you shopping and not paying attention to what you buy or spend?
I don’t really understand the smoothies when juice is perfectly fine. You can get carton juice that is much cheaper.
Buy ice cream and have it when you get home.
Reduce the activity amount.
I used to live in Runcorn, £75k for a joint income is serious amount.
From your responses it sounds like you’re a bit nonchalant, both working, children, yet can’t afford a holiday even on 75k. Maybe stress or work or whatever.
You need to think about your finances and work to reduce what you spend.

We have a similar income, three kids and are planning a holiday for October break. It's all inclusive as that is easier with the kids and will be coming in at £2.5k. It's all about priorities. We won't be going abroad every year as we'd like to buy a new house in the next few years and I need to save.

You are spending a lot on kids activities and branded food shops, to each their own but of course that eats into your budget!

It all depends on what sort of holiday you want to take. We used to stay at Youth Hostels when our children were young and then when we could afford it booked a cottage.
We never went abroad as we couldn't afford it.

You need to put details of income and expenditure onto a spreadsheet and see what you can do to cut back.

TBH OP, when we were dishing out £100s on childcare, our holidays were in the UK, and once we had to stick to term time, we camped!!

Homeexchange for holidays. We've been doing it for years and loving it. I can never go on a normal holiday again because it all seems so expensive now ....

Excellent. Sorted then. 🙂

You decide what you are going to save every month and put it away. Doesn't matter how much money is coming in. Than you pay your rent/mortgage, utility bills, food and what is left can be used for clothes, nights out, kids activities, etc. Then you have holiday money. You are loaded. There are families having to manage on less than £20K and still manage a holiday every year. Priorities!!!

I think the only reason I can afford holidays is because I don’t have children/pets and live in a one bedroom flat. It wouldn’t be feasible for me otherwise!

You do realise lots of jobs and industries are based in London, yes?

I would be on about a third of my wage in the North West, for example. So yes, COL would be cheaper, but overall I'd have less money, and far fewer career options.

I go on UK holidays that cost less than £300.

Same here. I have a British Airways Amex card that gets me points to spend on flights. I either get free flights or I can upgrade to business/first class. Very cute that someone working in Asda would assume I'm poor and can't manage my money because I use one. LOL.