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

I pay for everything on a credit card because I get cashback, doesn't mean I'm in debt though because I pay it off in full.

I’m always amazed at posters who come on here to say they’re surprised they have no money yet spend it easily and say things like OP did such as ‘Kids always need something/there’s always an ice-cream needed at the park etc’

in north west as well, joint income about 50k. We have a big mortgage in relation to our income and bills etc cost a lot.
We spend £100 ish on clubs per month for two children, not including extras for competitions. We save a set amount for birthdays, Xmas, car repairs per month. We have set money each per month. I divide mine weekly so if my child needs new swimming costume/shoes etc I factor that into my budget for that week and choose to take snacks to the park instead of buy an ice cream. We might have a takeaway once a week as that’s cheaper than eating out but still a treat. My children are very lucky compared to a lot of children (and they know this) but they know lots of children with a lot more money than us. My aim is to get the best from our money. This week they have a birthday party to go to, one has a competition and it’s my turn to have a friend round this weekend for lunch with her children. My children know with lots of lovely things like that happening we might go on a walk, go to the park, movie night etc but no big spending. Anything left will be put towards summer holidays spending when the weeks are long and I think they’ll enjoy a treat more!

Holidays we save for in months like January/February when we’re happy to stay in more.

Some of my friends are so frivolous with money and complain they are broke but earn a lot more than I do! It’s like me moaning about being overweight when I eat lots of chocolate! If you aren’t saving and could do then don’t be surprised if you have no money!

Holidays do not need to be the MN £7000 for a family of 4, plenty good deals around. I've just had a week BnB in Turkey with my DD16, £800, lovely hotel, good priced activities and endless sunshine.

OP, it's really a matter of you not earning enough to have everything that you want. Are either you or your partner able to find better jobs on more pay?

under these circumstances it depends on priorities really, a holiday is non negotiable for me, it’s basically the only reason why I bother going to work, to see some parts of the world (and obviously pay bills 😂)

if that means knocking £20 a week off the food bill, no eating out or takeaways all month and no paid for days / nights out or treats to save up, then so be it.

clearly it’s not that easy for people who are just making ends meet, but I’d imagine under your circs there’s some good budgeting to be done.

They're all juice and liquid in the end product though 😂

You're kidding yourself if you think Innocent is drastically different to any own brand version. It's just clever marketing aimed at people with more money than sense

I also wonder if you could tell the difference in a blind taste test a la "Eat Well for Less".

thats your interpretation

they don’t mean the same thing exactly!!

if you make a smoothie you don’t squeeze the juice out and have that only but Tesco seems to

the ingredients in the Tesco smoothie are juice, the Innocent Smoothies are pure fruit! juice is made of fruit...

www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/nutrition/5-a-day/smoothies

Nothing with an innocent smoothie as part of a balanced diet, my kids eat lots of fruit and veg and water for every other drink.

YABU.

Either they have a higher income than you, or less expenditure in other categories.

Yes but in a smoothie you take the whole piece of fruit!

in Tesco’s they give the juice!!!

By paying them off monthly. Booking 18 months in advance and paying monthly

Did you save any of it?
if not then your a spender rather than a saver

Well, that's your answer. You don't budget. I would imagine you do that with all sorts of things. You just have got used to having so much money that you can just buy whatever you want. I expect you could easily go on holiday. I'm on a very low income. I'm still planning to take my children away for a couple of days in the summer as our holiday. But I don't spend £100 on DC's activities and I spend £60 per week on groceries.

But all of this:

1 Squeezed Orange (51%), A slice of Pressed Pineapple (26%), 1/3 of a Mashed Banana**, A chunk of Crushed Mango (1.8%), Some Crushed Peach,

IS fruit purée. Purée is just squashed/blended fruit, it doesn't have anything nasty added to it.

There's nothing different in the Tesco one, they just use the word purée instead of saying everything has been squeezed, pressed, mashed and crushed 😂

Innocent smoothies are not healthy and not necessary - sugar laden tooth rotting but nice image

Eat an apple instead

If you won't change anything you will continue to be unable to afford a holiday

A ‘squeezed’ orange is orange juice, a ‘mashed’ banana is banana purée, a ‘crushed’ peach is peach purée.
It’s just flowery language.
If you like it and want it then buy it, no one’s saying there’s anything wrong with it but it’s just not some higher nutritious product nor does it mean you only consume better quality food.

You don't really seem to want to compromise on how you are living, so until you are able to start earning more I suppose that things will be a bit tight.

Which is understandable, but then unless it's reduced, it all adds up in price

Why aren’t smoothie healthy? They’re just fruit?

I thought the whole drawback with smoothies is that they give you all the sugar from the fruit but none of the fibre?

But if you're trying to save money that sort of thing is an easy way to save money. £2 a week on innocent smoothie is £100 towards an annual holiday. 5 trips to the park without springing for an ice cream is another £100. One less bottle of wine per month is another £100. Etc.

Very easy tiny cut backs like that can make a big difference. Things you wouldn't even miss.

If you're happy with the amount you're spending on innocent smoothies that's fine, problem solved. It's just that if you are looking for relatively easy wins to cut down, that would be one of them. But I don't think it's a problem if you fully understand that and value the smoothie more than anything else you might do with the cash. The key is being informed.

I hate paying for petrol, I have started walking

that’s good

I’ve used this budgeting webpage before Here

it gives a graph at the end and whether you are below or above average

it’s free and you can save it, it’s useful to know what your spending where

id get a book for a month and write everything down that you spend but next to each spend give a category, then at the end of the month add up each category- this will help you visually see where to cut back

was surprising I put in £140 as direct debit for gas and electric - £70 each and it told me it was above average for both 😳 I thought that was about average