To ask how much you spend on your holiday?

[grassseed]

How much do you spend a year on your holiday and how much is this as a percentage of your income?

E.g. do you earn £30,000 as take home pay and spend £1000 a year (3% of your take home pay).

I'm just wondering as I earn an above average amount, but when I'm on holiday I feel like I'm scrimping compared to the other people I see holidaying and I'm wondering if these are the super rich or if people spend a much larger proportion of their take home pay on holidays

I mean - average on a couple of holidays a year - 15/20k. 4 of us - 2a 2c.

Absolutely agree with this - we're both 36. Joint income around 70k (gross) Kids are 4 and 8. We prioritise holidays and experiences now over what may come in future.

In the last 18 months DH oldest friend passed away after a short illness at 35, and a family friend also died unexpectedly at 52. Neither even got to see their pensions, we overpay the mortgage very slightly - so it's anticipated to be cleared before we're 55, but it's also a 'low' mortgage by mn standards (£800 a month with overpayment, 4 bed house in the NE) My car is 5 years old, DH car is 7 years old. Grocery budget for 4 is £500 a month. I vinted EVERYTHING, both selling and buying, cut and colour my own hair, don't get my nails done outside of the home, bought the gel lamp in lockdown, Kids do swimming, football and karate clubs - they're not living an impoverished lifestyle, it is quite literally that, for our family, holidays and experiences are more important than clothes, new sofas, new cars etc.

We are the same. DH's uncle died mid 50s recently. Makes you think old age and retirement isn't guaranteed. Every stage of life is for enjoying. Save a bit, spend the rest on what makes you happy!

This thread is making me so sad (and jealous). I’m a single parent and due to my disability and chronic pain I cannot work. I’m late 20’s and had one abroad holiday when I was 20 and before that I hadn’t been on holiday since I was a child. Due to finances I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go on holiday, even in this country. So the fact that people are spending double than the amount of money I get for essentials and using it on holidays is baffling to me.

Income is $300k+ and we spent around $30k a year on holidays. Long weekend/City breaks for the 5 of us and then a couple of week-long holidays too. We fly cheaply but stay in nice VRBOs. I'm impressed at some people's budgeting skills if they can get multiple holidays out of a £50k salary!

Household income is £96k. Last year we spent circa £10k on holidays.

18k. two disabled DC (e.g. limited availability for work). Spend a week in Wales in Feb for £500 self catering. Would love to go somewhere in the summer but too expensive.

Totally amazed by some of the amounts people spend on holidays but I suppose if one can afford...

Our spend varies massively, but then again so does our income. Holidays are my favourite thing to spend money on. We spent 50k taking our family and friends to St Lucia for our wedding 2 yrs ago- that was fantastic!

This year we’ve spent 20k. I’m pregnant, so no long haul holidays and I’ve had to squeeze them all into the 2nd trimester 😂

do you get away in the UK?

Could you travel abroad anyway?

Earn about £35k a year. Spend about £2K on a "big" holiday each year, and probably another £500-800 on smaller minibreaks/weekends away.

How is it baffling though? Surely even in your circumstances you can understand that other people aren't single parents/don't have chronic health issues/have a higher income.

I make 16k as a TA, but freelance on the side and pay for my holidays entirely with the that. This year I spent 2k so far on holidays, might end up spending more if I get more freelance work. Before this year I spent 0 because my ex was minted and he paid for everything 😂

@Notmyuser What do you mean by "we aren't saving for retirement (aside our generous private pensions)" - if you have a private pension then you're saving for retirement, surely?

@Notmyuser

We aren’t saving for retirement (aside our generous private pensions)

come again?

A holiday is a break from work and your normal life. It absolutely does not need to mean going abroad.

We've had a few big trips for various reasons (40th, family gatherings, weddings, supporting competing teen etc). But we've had just as much, if not more, fun on lower key trips locally - both in this country and abroad but closer. Explored interesting places for history, culture, art, music. Found great places to eat. Bought some lovely clothes or things for the house. Met interesting people.

Relaxed.

Often "big" holidays come with stresses (logistics of getting there, moving around, can involve difficulties with food, acclimatising to temperatures or humidity or even time differences - we have gone as far as US, Canada, Cuba and China in the past.) And especially so when supporting teen competing in her sports - finding food that works for her, getting spare parts when needed, dealing with paperwork and bureaucracy in a different language and culture etc.

But our ultimate aim with holidays is to find somewhere that we can relax, unwind from stressful jobs and hopefully also find some interesting things to enjoy once we've slowed down a little. Some Sun and heat is nice, but it's more important to be able to relax. We've had a lot of fun walking in rain in new areas once we brought the right gear. So that doesn't need to involve spending a huge amount of money or going a long distance.

So our spend on holidays is not extravagant compared to our salaries and potential budget. But it is money we can afford on breaks away from everyday life that are interesting and will help US relax. In our families, we have others who go on big trips transatlantic every year and like lots of theme parks, pthers who go on cruises, others who like hillwalking in the UK and Europe, others who go camping and others who love a beach break and don't need anything else but an AI hotel. So everyone is different.

We always do ours really far in advance too - We go away next month, which was booked in Feb 2023. I've just this week booked October 2025. The deals we find for these advance bookings I've found are the best and it allows us to budget across the year for what we want to do while there.

After tax household income is about 45k, we spend about 2.5k per year on holidays (one summer holiday, two UK city breaks ish)

Joint income of (net) £70k. Probably spend £5-£7k on holidays a year.

Serious question - people who say they don't spend much, where are you finding cheap holidays?!?!? Because I trawl the internet for days (Airbnb, Booking.com, Tripadvisor, Skyscanner etc.) and can never find anything that's a "bargain" unless it's a crap location, shit flights or hellhole accommodation!

I book everything separately to try and save money and book quite far in advance but still can't find anything cheaper than say £2k for a fortnight abroad (Greece, Italy, Malta) and that's self catering....

Any tips would be much appreciated!

Also we don't even need to go in school holidays - this is usually May / June and Sept / Oct time.....

I found this thread and given it’s September have been thinking about this more.

we just went away for the summer - couldn’t believe how much a 4* AI in Spain cost. But we had an amazing time.

We have a very decent income objectively - but manage to only spend 1% or so on holidays as we are juggling the mortgage, childcare and been prioritising saving, pension and overpaying the mortgage. For us a holiday has been a bonus not an essential like housing provision, food etc. we don’t otherwise spend much on material stuff.

but honestly I’m amazed but also inspired at some of the %s in this thread eg 15% of income on holidays - and wonder if we have been doing it (ie what we value in life) all wrong. Maybe holidays and experiences is very much an essential.