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.

We went to Turkey in may. All inclusive for 2 weeks for 4 in a 5 star resort… cost 3600. Spent about 1500 there as well. Two weeks after we got back I booked to go back in October for a week.. same place. I work term time in a school and my partner is currently not working due to ongoing heart problems. Next years holiday will be booked in the next week or so…. The key is to book in advance and chip away at it. We have no debts or credit cards etc, don’t go out drinking (do enjoy a wine in the house like). Once it’s booked we kinda of cut our cloth around the monthly payments. When we haven’t got a holiday being paid for I also save like an idiot. Currently paying 500 a month for this holiday so only saving around 300 now. It just depends whether you want to book early as someone else said or want to pay one off instantly.

Where does it say per holiday?

Hi, travel agent here. Prices have soared and it’s really hard for people with more than 2 kids. We have 4 and go abroad every other year, I book it myself and we pay it monthly. Package hols are usually released 18 or so months before so we book as soon as released and then pay monthly we also save enough for spending money. It’s not easy, we forgo other things to be able to do it but it’s so worth it. 2 weeks in the sun with all the kids, no cleaning or cooking (we don’t go all inclusive as we like to be out and about so usually go room only or B&B) and save enough spends to eat out for lunch and dinner and for days out(spending money is usually more than the price of the holiday) I would recommend getting in touch with a local travel consultant who will help you search free of charge for what you want and within a budget you can manage and set up a DD for you to pay it off slowly. I always think speaking to someone with experience and lots of knowledge on hotels to match different budgets is so worth it

The fact prices triple during school holidays don’t help!

We cut out the agent and book everything ourselves. So much cheaper. Just had 10 days in Portugal, for 4, in an airbnb, for 2k.

Book early for next year and pay off

We have 4 kids and only have low to average income, its a total nightmare affording holidays, as i child my parents took us away on 1 abroad holiday every year and i feel bad i cant afford to do that with my 4 kids but we are off to Spain this year and have taken 2.4 years to pay it up since we cant afford the nearly 5k price tag every year we can at least do it every 2-3 years 🤞 otherwise we have a caravan which is super economical and kids love it but the uk weather is unpredictable thats the downside, i never understand how people manage every year or twice a year but im not prepared to be in debt for a weeks worth of sunshine, chin up and do what you can, hopefully the cost if living will decrease soon and more spare money will come 🤞🤞

Two families we know go away every year together, and last year they invited us. They're both families of 4, like us. I thought it would be so lovely to go away as a gaggle all together. They do 6 nights away, all inclusive including the flights in a place where the kids go to a kids club in the morning and then you're all together in the afternoon. The club is included in the cost.

£9860 for a family of 4....for 6 nights.

What the actual eff?!

I've not spent that much collectively on trips abroad in the last 5 years. Mental.

On the beach is good, it helps that you can pay in instalments

We asked for money towards going on holiday abroad for Christmas from our parents and then I borrowed the rest from my dad which I will be paying back for awhile 🙈

I like to go in April or October half term, it’s cheaper, warm but not boiling (how I like it) and you can pay in installments

Interesting thread. I'm from a working-class family. My parents, older sister and myself, never earned as much as the national average wage and I'd guess we were well down in the bottom quarter. As a child, we never went on holidays. I heard a little about it from other children and read about it in books, but really had no idea of what it was like. My grandmother and her second husband, similarly poor, managed to save enough for one week a year at the seaside.

My sister must have had more drive to try holidays and managed to go on a week package trip abroad when she was only 18. Later when her husband abandoned her with two children, she managed to take them away for the occasional camping holiday.
I never saw any point in holidays! I tried to make the best life I could at home, then holiday meant for me, swapping that good life for something less, or at least untested. Drinking, paddling in the sea and lying in the sun were never attractive to me - I don't do that at home, so why pay a lot of money to do it somewhere else?

Later, I did get the chance to go abroad, sometimes to work and sometimes to visit my sister who had emigrated. Such trips were either free (work) or cost me my fare and some contribution to food costs (family.) There was some interest in seeing different parts of the world at first, but gradually everywhere became much like here, especially the seaside and large towns (like where I live.)

After my mortgage was paid off and I retired, I eventually tried "normal" holidays. Just after Christmas (about 12 yrs ago), a friend told me she'd seen a short-notice holiday reduced to £200-a-week all-in in Tunisia. Although she decided never again for Tunisia, we found similar deals in Greece and Spain, progressing over 6 trips to over £300 a week all-in. It's nice to get some warm weather that time of year, but otherwise I can take it or leave it.
Then her relatives moved to Europe, so we did visits (calling them holidays), but they cost more than the off-peak packages (Flights cost more to non-holiday destinations, sometimes they could not provide accommodation and we always contributed to their extravagant food costs.)

So I don't think OP is unreasonable, but I'm amazed that so many people want holidays at all. They must be what I see as rich people, who can afford to buy better accommodation, transport and food, just for a week or two occasionally. Personally, I'd say, spend your money (what you can comfortably afford) improving your life at home and enjoy it all year round.

Surely you didn't drive 11hrs there and back for a four day break to Paris?
You're right - I don't know how you do it!

We recently looked for a holiday for 2 adults and 3 children. Impossible to find much under £3k which we couldn’t afford.

I feel my kids really are missing out but there’s no way we can afford it 🙁

We don't go away every year (not even every other year on average) but when we do, we avoid package holidays. Haven't been on one of them in nearly 20 years.
What we do is look at the easyJet site when they release their summer flights in about November and see where we can fly to from our local airport cheaply and with decent flight times. After we've booked flights, we then trawl through rental sites such as VRBO and book a villa or apartment (depending on how flush or otherwise we are that year!).
I've heard so many people say they couldn't beat to go self catering, but honestly it doesn't have to mean cooking. Normally we just go to a local supermarket and buy breakfast stuff, drinks, and bits to make lunch/sandwiches, then we go out for a meal at night. So much more choice, and (for me at least) I couldn't stand the idea of being in a hotel, limited to their food and having to fight for a lounger by the pool!
For reference there are five of us - my kids are older now so everyone doesn't always come along, but we've done it this way since before the third was born.

Credit card.

We tend to go abroad in the Easter holidays/May half term and again in October half term. Much cheaper than the summer holidays. We use air B&Bs to keep the costs down.

We stay in the UK in the summer holidays visiting friends/family.

Avoid beach typical resorts etc...you can fly to barcelona in school hols time still quite reasonable, get a place to stay and visit beach easy on train to sitges etc...i used to teach in an fe college so always managed to dodge the school hols rip offs as broke up a week earlier than the schools.

When my children were little we went abroad every other year as we couldn’t afford it every year. The alternate year we either stayed at home and had day trips or had a week at the seaside in a budget hotel. These days you can get free child places but you have to book a long time in advance. One of the best holidays abroad we ever had was going to the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria. It was very cheap comparatively but that was before Bulgaria joined the EU so it might be more expensive now. Worth a look though.

We’ve been going for a fortnight to Cornwall for about the last 15 years, for less than £2.5k for 4 of us (and hound). Generally had good weather, sometimes hot, sometimes too hot, sometimes mizzle, occasionally rain. Makes me laugh that so many people spend all year moaning about climate change, except when they fly abroad for their holiday 🤣

So personally... I work two full time jobs from home.. that's pretty much the only reason I can afford to go away this year.

@Flossyts June. I’ve always gone through the process of asking for “permission” to take my children out of school - luckily () always granted. Never more than once a school year though.
I’ve actually thought of doing that. Or a social media page.

We book accomm and flights separately. We self cater mostly so buy groceries to cover breakfasts, lunches and every second evening meal. When we spend the day sightseeing, we eat lunch in restaurants and self cater for the evening meals. It is expensive when you hire a car, and pay into museums and attractions.

Booking in advance is less expensive esp for package deals.

A friend goes for one week instead of two which obviously reduces costs significantly..

For this year's holidays we spent 4K for four of us for two weeks which was a lot for us. It should have been under 3.5K but we had an issue with the hire car and ended up booking two cars in error (don't ask!).

Personally I'd have no issue with paying school fines and going before the schools break up either.

Do you mind saying what you do? I'd like to take on another job even part-time.....

Social media management. You do need some training to make good money. Would recommend it, lucrative and tons of work around.