How the fuck can people afford to go on holiday?

[Figuringitout]

I’m wondering if I am just super naive about how much everything costs. I earn an okish amount, have a small mortgage and don’t feel like we live extravagantly. I have 3 kids who I’d like to take on holiday. My husband earns seasonally (and is trying to increase that) but at the moment his main contribution to our budget is in looking after kids so we don’t have to pay for childcare.
Back to holidays, I cannot find anything somewhere hot for less that £4k and even France we’re talking about £2.5k.
So, do people have holiday funds that they pay into each month? Please tell me how everyone seems to be affording to go abroad once a year.

I went away to a sunny place 3 hours flight away very recently for one week, stayed in a 3 bed airbnb, near the beach, swimming pool on the estate, clean, my children (10, 8, 6) LOVED the place, It wasn't frantically fun, but relaxed and lovely. It felt residential and we felt like locals, food was reasonable.

Flight and accommodation for 5 came in at £1000. I couldn't believe it, honestly. I pat myself on the back, I do! OP, if you want the details, DM me and I'll send you the airbnb details.

I amthinking of doing house swaps to get cheaper holidays either UK or if it works then abroad. There are a couple of UK companies who do this. You would have to clean tidy and photograph your house then either do straight swap or swap for points so can do any timing.

I really like this idea as airbnb in UK can be £3,000 high summer. Would that work for you OP?

Cheap holidays. There are often cheap deals, £1100 for a week all inclusive in Cala Ratjada, Majorca. Flights to Italian cities using skyscanner in September for £19 there, £15 return. £360 for 5 days self catering in Kalavasoss*, Cyprus, including flights. Search and search. Save each month, and if necessary put any spending on credit card which gets paid at the end of every month, or very rarely spread over 2 months. All this insistence that people go into debt for holidays is not what any family I know does, so I disagree, they just plan agreed and prioritise it.

We went abroad in may for 1.8k all inclusive.

We have a small mortgage, small childcare. Buy second hand clothes and eat fairly cheaply. We can afford a few treats.

We have two children. Heading to Thailand for 2 weeks in August. £6800 in total for flights and villa. We prioritise holidays and between us, earn well above average.

Wow! £1k altogether, not each? That's amazing. Defo deserve pat on the back.

We just went on holiday 4 nights for £960 for 3 adults and 1 child - was half board as well. Would have been £1500 for a week but the others didn't want to go for so long.

Our DS didn’t have a holiday until he was 4, because we were hard up; I was also on mat leave, sick leave, then we finally bought a house. So we just visited family and had 2 weekends away in B&B’s, one of which MIL paid for.

Now we’re a bit better off, and only have one child. We’d never do med package holidays though - far too expensive. We plan it ourselves, mostly do UK. Echo others saying camping (if someone can lend you a large enough tent and the equipment) and if we go abroad I look for cheap flights/Eurostar tickets and we book it all individually.

Packahe holidays costing £7.5k as a pp said blow my mind- especially when you consider future cost of living rises, pensions etc. But it’s horses for courses.

Hopefully when your DC are in school your DH can up his hours.

Because my outgoings are low. Simple as that.

I am not a high earner, I'm a single parent of 1. Take home after tax/pension is £2300 per month. My rent is £500 per month then all other bills (council tax, energy, water, TV, phones, insurance) are another £500. I have no childcare costs as my child is 16 so don't need it. That leaves me £1300. I prioritise holidays as it's my favourite thing to do so I usually put away £500 per month for holidays. Then I've got £800 left for everything else - clothes, food, other luxuries etc. I rarely buy myself new clothes as I'm not that bothered.

I receive some UC so I can't save any more than I've already got saved as it will reduce my UC. So the money goes on holidays for now.

I don’t have kids but one on the way and this is the first we haven’t been away in 18 years as we are saving for May leave. Normally we book a cheap air bnb outside of a city or town and rent a car l. We’ve also thought about camping in the mountains abroad as we like hiking. Maybe you could do a more kid friendly camping version, or book an air bnb. Don’t stay in cities or near big resorts. Buy your own food for day time and just eat once a day maybe at night?

Also places like Bulgaria and Albania are cheap. I think package holidays are boring and over priced, much more interesting to be in nature and be with the locals, harder with kids but still doable I’d say.

It's not "canaries" as much as it is your specific hotel though.

We have a budget spreadsheet which captures how much we can spend in a year on holidays (as well as other things like Christmas, birthday presents, new clothes etc) and then spits out a monthly saving figure. Every month we set that much aside.

I think with 3 children it’s hard to find something affordable. We currently just have the one and I was stunned at how much the cost of holidays increased when accounting for a child. It’s not just the extra flight and bedroom, it’s the fact you tend to only find bigger properties which are suitable, or disproportionate hotel costs for family rooms etc. I feel for you, it isn’t easy!

Don't read the £9k budget thread!

@Fuckgrancanaria

It's the place you booked, plenty of nice hotels there, try booking one that is adult only. When we still had to go in school holidays we also went to more unusual places eg n coast of Spain via ferry, or Baltic coast via the tunnel for great breaks without the noisy crowds (not just the Brits but the Germans, Dutch etc) failing that book Spanish owned hotels, definitely more sedate

Shame so many posters still think holiday = abroad and that if you dont go abroad you havent 'travelled'.

Also forgot to mention Cheapholidayexp and BudgettingMumofficial are great accounts for travelling, budgeting in general. It’s Instagram but they have websites/ you tubes I think as well.

The realistic answer is surely because they might go without different things to prioritise a holiday. Plus, I appreciate your DH isn’t bringing in a full wage, but it may be different in the future if he is. A lot of families sacrifice expensive holidays for a few years (especially during the childcare years). However, you can get last minute deals for much cheaper if you’re not too fussy where you go.

Like PP we have one child which makes a huge difference, we have two full time incomes and compress hours/ have grandparent help (very lucky) so our childcare bills are low. We stay in a smaller house because we are only a family of three and at the moment we have only one car. I think your DH will need to look at more steady work, and with three children probably a holiday abroad every second year would be more realistic unless you are high earners.

We hadn’t been abroad for a decade until last year we went to Disneyland. Not going abroad this year but we are going to America next year.

We save up and mostly go glamping in the uk. We are on holiday in Cornwall at the moment and the children are having a brilliant time surfing, playing on the beach and visiting interesting things- you don’t have to leave the country or spend a fortune to have a good holiday!

We’ve just had a week in a comfy quaint holiday cottage in Yorkshire dales. Weather was gorgeous the English countryside cannot be beaten for beauty. Had a great time. Cost £650.

Our holiday budget comes out of DH’s work bonuses, which aren’t part of our day-to-day budget. We tend to plan our holidays 9ish months in advance, and we always book our own holidays instead of using a package provider, so we end up naturally spreading out the expense as we book different parts of the trip at different points. It usually starts with the most expensive bit (usually plane tickets), then maybe a month or two later we will find the accommodation and pay a deposit, then will book and pay the rental car the next month, etc. Any expenses we know we will need to cough up on the holiday itself (balances for the hotels, excursions, food, etc) we put in a separate savings account ready for the trip.

We have 3 kids, so planning is a must for us as the costs could spiral out of control otherwise. We love traveling with our kids. I usually have 3-4 holidays ‘on the go’ in terms of planning at any given time. For example, we’ve got our summer one coming up and are just getting last bits sorted like pet sitting. I’m also working on booking ski school for our Christmas ski trip (booked accommodation and paid the deposit in May) and am also now working on finding flights for our Feb half term and Easter 2025 trips since they are almost always cheaper if booked further out.

It’s very fun because they are your kids. We’ve been abroad since my eldest was two each year (she is 19 now), and we have two other kids too (all girls)! They play and entertain each other. The only issue about three kids is it puts you over the one room hotel threshold so we started going in Villa holidays and it suits us much better.

we have even been to Disney (Paris/Florida/Cali) a few times and I will admit that is somewhat stressful but again you get used to the number of kids you have so I haven’t found if any different (apart from the price) of having one/two - you adapt.

@Figuringitout maybe dh can do an evening job once you are home

Waiter
Bar staff
Cleaning
Delivering food

Etx

We can't- still got to take the kids with us for a few more years. We've always tried to avoid very British places, but thought the kids might want to go somewhere busier now they're older. Plan was to suck up the proliferation of Irish bars and all you can eat Chinese buffets, if kids were happy.
However,consensus is that they'd rather somewhere more chilled next year.