How are so many people booking holidays if they are struggling with the cost of living?

[Brinnyloowho]

This is definitely not meant in a snarky way but so many people around me are going on not one, but multiple holidays over the next year. Ordinary, not particularly well-off people. All the news of airports and travel being pushed to their capacity. All at the same time I'm seeing about the cost of living crisis. Yet, in reality I'm not seeing it.

Maybe all of these holidays were booked pre-crisis (I know ours was). Does this mean travel will slow down again after the summer?

I kind of sacrifice everything but travel

i can’t imagine never going abroad each year

i save and watch what I spend

growing you my parents scrimped all year to take us abroad - as kids we often went
to Spain by coach but we still got there

my costs have risen by say £350 a month

so holidays are not out of reach for many who had disposable cash

Also people aren't always logical.

I'm concerned about future finances. DD has 3 more years at University and we have a few more years of mortgage.... but we are still going on our delayed 2020 trip to Sicily (not entirely paid for) plus driving to Belgium for a few days in August because we had to book time off. Belgium is a cheap Eurotunnel self drive, but it is still money that we should probably save.

But DC are coming with us for both, and who knows when that will happen again.

You're not making a correlation between the two groups of people. Some are struggling to make ends meet whilst others are able to pay for a holiday (and lots who don't fall into either category).

I'm lucky, I'm on holiday now. We have less disposable income every month than we did when we booked the holiday, but not such a decrease that we've had to make different plans.

YABU.
And lacking in knowledge and imagination. There is a huge demographic outside of who you see where you are, and who you see on the television @Brinnyloowho .🙄

The Cost of Living Crisis is real!

Covid saved my family hundreds a month in the commute alone, when the lease is up on one of our cars, we will save another £250 as we don’t need two (and own the other).

People also are a bit more charitable after covid, we car pool the school run now. Our family cars do an average of 50 miles a week between them between the odd day in the office and our turn to do the school run.

Most of the savings have been eaten up now with energy and food prices, and the times we need fuel. But with the savings on commutes etc we are evens on where we was pre pandemic, I.e where we had enough disposable for eating out and an annual holiday. If we couldn’t work from home though we would be living pay check to pay check

Honestly, work bonus and cut backs. We’ve trimmed in other areas so we’re still adding to our savings thankfully.

Credit/bank loans.

Some people genuinely have good disposable income. I like in North Staffs, houses are cheap to buy.

Lots of people cut back to save for their holidays, we do.

Although was slightly jealous on an Orlando FB group, some people taking £5k + spending money, that's my whole holiday budget. But good on them if they can afford it.

The cost of living crisis impacts both low earners and middle earners.

The low earners will be destitute and middle earners will feel the pinch, less savings, less luxurious treatments.

There is still a lot of money around for holidays, two siblings recently bought new cars not on finance

I've made a conscious decision to donate 10% of my shopping budget into the food banks trolley.

I haven’t been on holiday since 2019 , am self employed and struggled on furlough ( company director ,, not a fat cat though )
I can’t wait to spend a week on a sun bed with a novel in one hand and a glass of wine in the other

I do think those with less are more aware of the need for donations.

Many people have also cut their costs/ kept them the same by downsizing on their consumption of utilities food and fuel.

• yes fully aware that some people cant reduce any further. But the wash towels after every use, heating on,bin food, lots of booze, drive everywhere people have cut back massively. If you have wiggle room you can cut back and many people would rather do this than not have a holiday.

The cost of living crisis has hit us as in we don’t save much when we used to be able to save a lot. But we can still afford holidays. The newspapers will obviously only show the worst cases where people are on the poverty line. All the middle-class circles seem to be carrying on as normal!

I have a very low income but my savings have matured and my God, it is not all going on bills. Life has been, and continues to be, shit. If I can have a few days in Butlins, it gives me a reason to keep fighting.

I had about £5k saved up when I went on maternity leave last year. I’m using the last of it to go to Barcelona next week. If I have anything left when I get back, it will be spent in September for my birthday, my husband’s birthday and my brother’s wedding. After that, I’ll just have my salary and it is only just enough. It will be a while before I get away again sadly.

We afford luxuries by living in a house which is far too small for us. Upsizing would increase our mortgage by 3x so I just can't justify it at the minute. Our household income has doubled (to 68K) in the last 5 years but our outgoings have reduced due to paying off debt etc. we can deal with a small house if it means not stressing about money

Am I overly cautious by trying to save as much as possible because of all the uncertainty?
Yes life is short and unexpectedly brings misery.
We might get nuked soon too.
Grab the good times.
Splash out.

Not everyone is massively affected by the cost of living crisis, myself and my wife both got promotions last year, we remortgage and decreased our payments by £200 a month. We’ve also been working overtime most weeks for extra money. You can’t assume everyone is broke and using credit cards.

@EmeraldShamrock1 we are having a holiday but cheap ones. I'm terrified of a recession etc though.

Even if they weren't holidays carried over from 2020 or 2021, your friends may well have booked them in Dec / Jan this year, before inflation really started running wild, before the energy price cap went up in April and before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Also many people will have missed out on holidays for the last couple of years so 2022 holidays are an absolute priority for them. By 2023 they will have had a decent holiday and the cost of living crisis will really be biting hard. They might be content to skip a holiday next year.

We just earn enough to still enjoy holidays etc lucky I know.
But maybe people who don't know us well would think otherwise as we don't broadcast our financial status.
But no credit cards here

All of DDs (Y1) friends are going on holidays, all my colleagues are going on holidays. I'm almost embarrassed when I tell people we're not. Just having a couple of nights in a UK city. DD doesn't care (she's never been abroad yet) but I can't help but feel inferior and that I'm letting her down in some way.

I've heard one colleague talk about being in her overdraft. She's been abroad once already this year, is going again next month, as well as various weekends away.

I'm also in my overdraft. And that's where it ends! I don't know how people do it.

Interesting thread. Of course there are a huge amount of people who the cost of living crisis hasn't affected at all yet.

I was in Costco today and utterly flabbergasted at the hundreds of people buying mostly unnecessary crap - trays and trays of bottled water, designer sunglasses, kids pools, bbq food premade instead of making it. Also went to IKEA which was also having - half an hour queue for the cafe at lunch.

Commented to DH on the way home you'd never have known there was a cost of living crisis or what I believe to be a looming recession

I don’t really know. Everyone is pinched in different ways. I haven’t been able to afford a holiday abroad (or U.K. - aside from camping nearby) for years and I definitely can’t now. When people say they prioritise everything bar holidays, I understand. But I legitimately can’t cut back any more without causing malnutrition to my family. Holidays/anything that’s not a necessity are just out of the question. I think people are just noticing they have less dispensable income and that’s distressing for everyone - but particularly those who were struggling before anyway. I don’t think we’ll be able to afford heating this winter people discussing holidays seem like they’re on another planet to me - it’s just not the same struggle.

I think the people struggling now are those who were already in a relatively precarious position and the current crisis has tipped them over the edge.

Also many people genuinely earn enough to support their lifestyles. This whole ‘they are up to their eyes in credit card debt’ thing when people have stuff is tedious and designed to make people who are struggling feel better.

Not everyone is struggling, those that are may have already had the savings before the cost of living bit hard. After covid lockdowns people feel they deserve them. Some may be using credit.

While we earn under 60k shared. We have a low mortgage, no kids a 3 bed semi, and low outgoings. We don’t buy much in expensive tech/clothes etc..

So we do have a good amount of disposable income which we save some and then spend some. Our socialising is quite cheap: pubs, meals out, odd gig/show/cinema/art gallery kind of thing. So we do prioritise holidays and breaks away. Nothing like the amounts I’ve seen on here sometimes but we do a couple of 4/5 day breaks a year home or abroad and a couple of hotel stays. Will just see how things go next year but we may not get all the holidays we would like.