How do people pay for a holiday? Decent income and can’t afford it?

[Ht1]

Our take home is 5,000 a month after tax. Mortgage 1,600, childcare 1,400, car payments 450 for two cars (each needed for work), bills 600, which leaves around 1,000 for petrol or days out and birthdays or one off expenses. Sometimes we can save 300 but not always and often that gets wiped out, like last month when we had tyres changed.

Just looked at holidays outside school holidays and it’s 1k minimum for accommodation for a week, much more if adding in parking at an airport and going abroad. How do people pay for this? It seems sad a family of three with 5k a month can’t book a uk holiday with ease.

Are you sure you're accounting for everything correctly? No mention of groceries which for a family is fairly substantial these days. Try doing more low cost/no cost activity with the children parks, walks (weather permitting and take packed lunches), leisure centres for swimming etc., if rainy.

Try treating saving for a holiday like a bill £x goes from your pay with all the other bills into a saving account & it doesn’t get touched.

even on a high income we struggle (as a family of 5 with one income) and do 1 holiday every 2 years or so. we swap things where we can, not many day trips but forests/beaches/parks with a picnic (car picnic with the British weather), soft plays but take our own snacks or play dates at our home & a homemade cake, eating out/takeaways swapped for supermarket meal deals or making it from scratch, cinema trips take ur own snacks or movie nights at home (much cheaper on the popcorn front) watch old to us but new to them movies, library trips for a new book to read.

As others have said there are loads of facebook pages etc, dedicated to finding bargain holidays/trips that are helpful

Our income is similar but no childcare costs as they are now adults and our mortgage is under £1000 a month, older cars no finance on them. We save every month and holiday once a year, along with multiple weekend breaks. To be fair we didn’t have the money for holidays often with children so I realise it’s difficult.

People that don't have to pay £1400 a month childcare are going on holidays. Wait until that's done and it will be you.

My immediate question is why are you paying so much for cars? Do you really need to have a new car? Could you not manage with a second hand car? Second hand doesn't necessarily mean rubbish.

Another thought is are there grandparents that could assist with the childcare if they are not already?

I can't really say any more as I've been lucky financially. I have never been able to romantically attract a woman so I have been single and living alone through adulthood, thus no kids, no childcare costs, and food for myself alone. I was lucky I bought my house when the 2007/8 financial crash started and was able to get a tracker mortgage on which the interest rate crashed to less than 1% for almost all of the term. When I moved from a 1-bed starter home to a 3-bed semi, I looked at affordable properties which were close to work and allowed me to have a small mortgage, I was lucky to find this house going cheap (by SE England standards). A 19 mile round trip to work (20-5 years back) equated to a bit over £100 in petrol per month plus around £60 for any family visit in NW England (a few times a year). One motivation for buying the house I did was I could cycle the round trip to work which cut down a lot on fuel costs, although 9.5 miles each way with hills is a fair physical effort. When I was made redundant I got a hybrid job in London which only requires commuting twice a week, so modest rail fares and much less driving overall. Using a bicycle for local journeys further reduces spending on fuel and parking. At home I have the heating on at the lowest level required for comfort whilst dressed appropriately for the season, so my energy bills are not very high even with the recent fuel inflation.

I was involved in a near fatal road accident due to a careless driver many years ago which led to a subnstantial compensation payout, and combined with the redundancy package, means I have very generous padding against financial shocks.

When you live alone and have no ties to anyone else, it is much easier to make choices which, for example, restrict commuting distance (and therefore transport cost) and generally set your life up to optimise financial efficiency. It is much harder if you have a live-in partner and have children.

Really highly recommend youth hostels. If you go on the YHA website you can find some great places where a family can stay in anything from a city centre to an isolated hillside in an en suite room and enjoy all the comfort of self catering but affordable and for 1 night or 7.

Most youth hostels will have details on site of great local activities including museums, walks, cycle hire, wildlife spotting and more.

We love our YHA breaks and each child has their own youth hostelling passport where they collect stamps at each one. So far we have stayed in a castle (St Briavels), an old China factory (Coalport) and a purpose built hostel in a park (National Forest) and lots more. My children loved Ilam Hall as it is not far from Dovedale stepping stones and I loved it, exploring the grounds when all the National Trust visitors had gone home was magic, although I did wake up a few times thinking that I could hear one of the ghosts!

We are embracing family adventures and hope that this message might inspire you to join the adventure. Xx

P.S. some youth hostels even have travel cots and all have a washing machine and drying room.

I think you are being unrealistic. It's not clear what your childcare arrangements are but they are obviously very expensive. They will end when your kids are older. And get rid of your car payments. You state that your discretionary spend goes on "days out". Try days in and load that onto the car payment. If you made your number one priority to get rid of a 450 a month car payment it would get sorted quick Then you would have plenty of spare money.

If your kids are small enough to need that much childcare, they don't need holidays - so don't beat yourself up. Save the money, stay home and pay off your debt.

We have a pretty good income and have booked some holidays this year. However we always take pack up and snacks on days out and book things as cheaply as possible which takes some planning. We would rather sacrifice days out for some longer breaks eg long weekends.

We have booked a big holiday this year which we have saved for a long time for. However we bought an air tent from Aldi a few years ago for around £200. This year we have camping booked for Easter, a local festival which we got early bird tickets for and was £100 for a family of 2 adults 3 children including 3 nights camping, we booked a 7 night break at haven for £330 ish including access to all the amenities for the last week of the summer holidays. Last year we booked a sun news holiday for £38 for 3 nights for four.

we didn’t use it but haven offered a payment plan over 10 months that was £37 a month or similar and the festival had a plan to pay for £20 ish a month.

There are lots of options out there but just have to look around and plan and make some sacrifices elsewhere.

When my kids were little I bought a tent. I thought we’d get bored but no, the now grown up kids all camp and I’ve got more tents than strictly necessary in my garage. We camped all over the UK but always had two weeks in Cornwall at Trevornick… the most fabulous place in the world. Last went there in 2021 when the eldest kids were 30 🙄
We also did the Sun £9.50 hols (although they’re never quite £9.50) and very off season Center Parks (the few days after new year before the schools go back).
Also rented cottages and stayed in holiday parks. Where there’s a will there’s a way.

We just used to have cheap holidays when ours were that age - family room in a YHA, Travelodge, 5 nights camping in northern France, caravan holiday in UK, camping in UK. So you just have to reframe 'holiday'. We were always happy to have a change of scene & do things cheap. So no eating out on hols except cone of chips & ice cream, some nice hot chocolate & cakes. It wouldn't suit everyone I realise.

If you can go in term time you could get good price for something like Center Parcs in Europe.

We also used to have main holiday in May Half Term as it's a bit cheaper.

We have much lower mortgage and cars are paid off and we still find it difficult, we’ve been holidaying in the UK and the cheapest we’ve found is around £1,000 for a week.

You don’t have to pay £1000 for a week. You can go to center parcs for less than that. Make the most of being able to go out of school holidays, June and September are nice for UK breaks. Look at camping or caravan parks. Or a premier inn city break somewhere that has nice free attractions, great beaches, play parks and free museums are perfect for under 5s. Save vouchers and coupons for eating out.

House swap holidays.

Try limiting limit your "paid" days out to once a month, it really isn't compulsory to spend a fortune every week entertaining children. No doubt the children would like to stay at home and play with the toys that have been bought for them.

By saving. You should be able to save up when you have a spare £1000 a month.

Not ideal but could you book for 2026 with easy jet and pay monthly also look for free child places

Our income is less than yours, but we have no mortgage or childcare costs.

Biggest bill is the council tax.

We have 3-4 holidays a year (anything from £2k-10k) as we have less outgoings.

I personally put money to few different savings accounts on payday. So there automatically is less to spend on days out. If the £1000 is funmoney then there should be room to save.

I'm a single mum and so although on a decent salary not great as the only one footing the bills.

However we have recently tried Butlin's! My daughter LOVED it... I won't say I prefer that over a sun holiday with a beach and cocktails but we had the best time.

I'm taking her for her birthday in the summer ands ins only £44 for 4 nights you can't argue with that.

I think whilst the kids are young Butlin's, Park Dean haven etc are all great x

My income is MUCH lower than yours as is my DPs. Travel is a priority to me so I make sure I put money aside each month, but I am also happy to do it on a budget. We’re going away in Feb - 5 nights, staying in a mid budget but really nice air bnb with an pool, and rented a car - total cost is £550. We will do a big shop when we arrive, and eat out a few times. We will spend the time exploring in our rental car (it’s a place where there are cool things to do and see), relaxing annd spending time as a family. Our DC is 2. It always baffles me how much people spend on holidays!! I usually get in about 4 a year.

Dipping in to say you aren’t alone OP. I earn £50k pa (not in London). DH similar, maybe a bit less than me. I just can’t justify £6-7k on a holiday abroad. It seems extortionate for 10-14 days of fun in the sun. We are on a very low rate mortgage at the moment. Who knows what we will end up paying when that ends. And I doubt we will ever get such a good deal again during the life of our mortgage.

It feels like the good times are over for the UK. If I could afford to I would move my family to another country where it’s safer and more prosperous.

Actually it doesn't because then you get locked into the totally unfair and ridiculous and fineable rule of only being 'allowed' to take your children on holiday during school holidays and, if you hadn't noticed, travel companies can and do increase prices by three times as much as outside term time so not sure how that can make anything 'easier'?!! 🙄😡

Even if the OP were to work from home you can’t be caring for children whilst meant to be working so they would still need childcare

Is there a way you could go part time and reduce childcare costs as sometimes the costs outweigh the income if that makes sense? I’ve got an account that I put a small amount into weekly, do weekly online shops (as less tempted to buy anything not needed) and curb car running costs by walking and doing free activities so it all adds up. Not so much now as I have grown children but I just cut my cloth accordingly and curbed spending and did cheap holidays and lots of planning for school holidays and activities etc - if the children go to a nursery sometimes alternative care can be cheaper (childminding) and with the 30 hours hopefully coming out in September it could help more. As people have said once they start school it does get easier

£450/month for cars is crazy. Buy an old car outright and run it for 5-10 years.

Childcare costs is hard. The answer if you can is family. We spend a fortune on clubs (outside of work time mostly), but not £1400/month!

For holidays we often go camping. Yes you need to get the kit, but once you do it's £400/week at the best campsites with pool etc, and the kids seem to like it more than any other holiday we go on.

This is our favourite place, going at the end of August (again): Tregarton Park