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 am in the south east. Inspite of having what appears to be a comfortable income for me and my two children, I would never factor into my annual budget a holiday which goes way down the list and have skipped for years and years. Thankfully the same was the case when i was growing up so my parents kind of trained me into that expectation (or lack of expectation!) anyway.

Which is understandable, but then you have to make sacrifices else where, unless your a millionaire, then until then you may have to forgo the holidays etc

All the fibre is removed leaving pretty much just fructose. Whole fruit contains fibre which balances out absorption of sugar so avoiding massive insulin spikes.

Essentially commercial smoothies are just as bad, sugar wise as coke. Not the same as whipping up banana and strawberries in your nutri bullet at home because the fibre stays in.

It's not that they're unhealthy, but a bottle of smoothie will have lots more sugar in it than just having a bowl of chopped up fruit.

Interestingly last few years when we've been to Majorca (just 2 of us) in June, in a very nice adults only hotel in a nice resort, it's been full of people from the North west north east and Yorkshire- some on their 4th holiday of the year!! - rarely a southerner to be found! So clearly plenty are affording it. I think being honest OP there can be many ways, some jobs have bonuses and people use those, some people inherit bits here and there, some people have huge credit limits and use them and some people prioritise holidays more than they do their food shop - others don't have their kids in clubs that cost a fair packet (unless it's after school or school holiday clubs) - and some get more free help than others when it comes to childcare, or grandparents paying for holidays etc-- it really is how long is a piece of string- all you can do is look at your income- look at your expenditure and as someone said above you can get a great Eurocamp holiday at a lovely site with pools, clubhouses etc even in season if you look round for around £1300 - plus crossings and spending money- terrific fun for kids too!! That's around £180 a month including spends. £40 a week

£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.

swap how you do things

buy a tub of ice cream and some cones, or get some cornettos from Iceland. Then go to the park with the ice cream

bythe smoothie frozen packs in Sainsbury and make the smoothies/ a pack is £2.50 and will make several smoothies with water and juice added

Natal : "Are either you or your partner able to find better jobs on more pay?"

Eh? New job? £75k household income is very good. Should be able to afford a holiday. Like Begonia, you don't need to spend a fortune on a holiday. At Easter we went a week AI to Majorca for £1250 for a family of 4.

£100.00

I think it depends on how you spend really for us holidays is a priority so clothes are bought second hand, food shopping is done to a budget with meat3 times a week which I get from the local butchers. I use local veg boxes in the summer as these are cheaper for us and go to pick your owns for fruit as again cheaper then the supermarket.
We have a lowish mortgage because we bought the house which needed renovation which is complete. Ice creams out are few and far between activities are cheap or free as nursery fees take up alot of monthly cash.
All bills are reviewed regularly no sky, phones are sim only on £5 per month, no gym or subscription boxes etc

I live in the south on a small percent of your household earnings and still budget for a holiday. You need to look at your spending.

True, but if OP is disinclined to cut corners elsewhere and still wants a holiday then increasing income is the other option.

This comment really made me laugh, I mean do me a favour. There's no difference and you're just coming across as really stuck up.
£75k is a pipe dream salary to most people ( us included ) and if you can't afford a holiday on that then you've only got yourselves to blame as you clearly can't manage your money. We live on less than half of that and go away twice a year - once for a week and once for a fortnight so not short breaks - but then we don't waste money on random crap.

NoGoodUsernamee Due to the fibre in the fruit being altered as it’s smoothed, this alters the sugar content concentration for want of an easier way of explination and diminishes the fibre

Stop buying ice creams from the man at the park, it's £4.00 for a single cone with a flake where I live. Find the nearest McDonalds, go through the drive thru on the way home and treat everyone to a 99p McFlurry instead.

Or stock up your freezer with supermarket own brand ice cream cones and lollies and tell the kids they can get one when you get home.

It depends how you go about it…

For example my husband is going away with our two children in Summer, they are going to Egypt for 16 nights, All Inclusive and it’s cost about £1300.

In May, they all went to Egypt for 7 nights, All Inclusive again and it cost £700.

Joint income 60k. Nursery fees monthly £1100. Mortgage £700. 2 holidays a year. But our weekly food shop for 2 adults 2 kids and 2 cats is £70, I purposely budget elsewhere to prioritise family holidays

I’ve had some decent steak from Aldi

but in honesty I doubt the supermarket meat is the issue, it’ll be other things in the trolley.Aling with a lot of other day to day habits that could be changed if you want to go on holiday

It's to do with how they are processed. All of the cell membranes are torn open, which means that all of the sugar is immediately available, and there is much less fibre.

Our household income is around 50k in the South East. No childcare costs though and mortgage £900pm.
We have had 3 holidays so far this year (week self catering in Devon, week self catering in Cornwall, long weekend camping in the New Forest) and we have 2 more week long trips booked over summer. You don't have to do an all inclusive break abroad. Although, we could afford one but it would be our only holiday. I would rather do 5 cheaper breaks over the year personally.

It depends what your outgoings are and what you consider a holiday I guess. Our take home pay is only slightly more than yours but we can afford to save and holiday abroad for 3 weeks. We also have children. We aren't extravagant and I've always been very careful with money though so living how we do is normal to me (we do lots of stuff, I just don't waste loads of money on things I know lots of people see as normal). We also live in the North and have a very small mortgage.

It is good, but if the OP is spending all of her money, leaving nothing for a holiday, and doesn't want to compromise on her "little luxuries" then the only way to afford the holiday will be to earn more.

I just hope she's saving something into an emergency fund, and not spending everything that comes in plus a little bit more.

The price doesn't make innocent smoothies better quality than a supermarket brand smoothie.

Actually talking of meat tasting like heaven- trays of 2 kg of absolutely beautiful minced steak are£10.50 at Windsor farm shop when I went this week - would have made 4 great bologneses or chillis. I was quite shocked- we get used to these £4 for 500g little trays- if you could freeze or batchcook they were a total steal (that wasn't reduced stuff either) I was suprised at a few things- realised it was actually cheaper than not only Waitrose or M&S but also Tesco and sainsburys on certain things

Its just not true that making fruit in to smoothies alters the fiber 🤣 did you all do weight watchers or something who use to tell people eating a banana was less "points" than mashing it then eating it. The only way fiber is removed when making a smoothie is if you remove the skin which contains fiber in certain fruits.

You need to check what you're spending all your money on. Seems like you're frittering it by not budgeting food/activities etc