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 claiming your free hours for childcare and the Tax Free Childcare amount?

I'm a single person and earn more than the current average UK wage, I also don't have children; but just one income in the household does mean things are quite tight, hence I pay for holidays on my credit card,

I either get a new card with a 0% purchase offer or find a 0% transfer on one of my current credit cards and do a balance transfer. Granted you usually pay a 3% transfer charge, (so £45 interest on a £1500 holiday) but it means I get a holiday sorted and I then pay the card off over the year without accruing the high rates of interest credit cards usually attract.

When next year comes around I'm usually just on paying off the last of the balance for the holiday and so I start the process again. I'm not encouraging people to get into debt but I'm quite disciplined with it and so far its been working well for me.

I'm sure that's really helpful

Didn't have a holiday abroad til the kids were 9 and 11 and childcare was reduced. And that is still from very few days out , no takeaways/meals out and I don't run a car. Think I can afford a nice holiday every other year now. Not with partner now but when I was we also couldn't really have time off together as we couldn't cover the school holidays with our leave.

Trusted Housesitters.
Honestly we've had some great tines staying in lovely houses around the country. You need to commit to looking after a pet or two but your children might love this.
You don't have to open up your own home in return if you're not comfortable with that, as it's optional, but could work if you have your own animals that need caring for.

I save £200/month in 'holiday account' at the beginning of the month as not always anything left at the end of the seems to help us save easier

We bought a £250 family tent (and the rest of the equipment) and waited for the good weekend weather forecasts and had lots of 3-4 night camping trips in all sorts of lovely places in the UK. From Yorkshire Dales, Scottish islands, the East coast and Lake District as well as Norfolk and Wales. Daughter loved it as so much to do and the novelty of roasting marshmallows over a campfire while we had wine.

Fabulous, that's a great holiday!

Our mortgage and childcare put together is less than your mortgage and we bring in a similar amount but we still struggle to pay for overseas holidays especially in the school holidays. We went in term time last year for the first time since having our youngest (7) because even including the fines we saved a lot of money. Not an option this year since the fines will be double and then you start getting threatened with court so we are doing Butlins. Not really my thing but the kids love it which is the main point. I will get my lounging sunny holidays back eventually.

Because instead of spending £1500 a month on childcare you spend £5k on a holiday?

Yes, you're right up to a point and after I posted my comment I thought of the saving to be made on childcare once children go to school but I have been there and done that and it's not as straightforward or financially beneficial as you might think! 🙄
School times do not fit in with most working hours so you then have to factor in breakfast and after school clubs which are not cheap, then there are obviously the school holidays to factor in which, even if you can take annual leave yourself during part of that time, you still need to fund childcare for the rest of the holiday unless of course you're lucky enough to have family that can step up! 🤔
Don't even get me started on the problems that can arise if and when children are ill and you are the only one who can pick them up or nurse them through the illness...I was a single full time working Mum in the 70's with 2 small daughters, there were no breakfast clubs then but luckily I found a job that allowed me to drop my girls off and still get to work on time although god forbid that the car wouldn't start or the traffic was bad! 😱
I had to pay someone to pick the girls up from school and stay with them till I got home and the holidays were a joke as I was working for nothing after paying the childminder, even in term time overall I was only slightly better off economically working as I was than being on 'Social Security' and there were no 'working tax credits' or 'top ups' available in those days, only Child Benefit!
Sadly the pressures became too much and it actually made me mentally ill so the job had to go and instead of being self sufficient as I preferred I was completely reliant on the state, which, for millions of women is PRECICELY the same situation they find themselves in...50 years later!! 😡

Just came back from Lisbon, as it happened, our airbnb had some serious issue (no running water due to burst pipe) and we had to find last minute accommodations to move to. Surprisingly, there were loads of half price last minute airbnb right in the middle of old town centre.
On a budget, you can walk around the beautiful Paco do Commercio, look at all the nice shops, have the famous Portuguese tart at €8.4 for 6 tarts (expect to queue). Public transport is very good. Day travel card is €11 per person and you can ride to every corner of the city, even take the ferry, the famous #28 yellow sight seeing tram and the steel elevator (massive queue but hey you got time and its free if you have the travel card), work out a tram / bus route, go look at some stunning historic buildings without having to pay or queue.
Lisbon also have parks where you can wander and picnic. We got lost (thank to google map), ended up in a pretty park with Barcelos Roosters running everywhere...Things are generally cheap, especially outside the main tourist area: local cafe (we went to one near the rooster park) prices are more like Gregg's price than Chelsea flower show's (e.g. €2 for a pie, €1.5 for a drink) so you won't break the bank having a spot of lunch out. If you cook your evening meals and breakfast, you probably will be paying the same as you would at home.
Save a few more pennies and plan well, you can still have a fab holiday.

Minimum wage but I afford 2 holidays abroad a year.I do it by prioritising what I spend on. I don't for eg spend money on hairdressers,getting nails done etc. I do also book holidays almost a year in advance so that I can make small monthly payments. On holiday,I tend to eat out at a restaurant for one meal a day,either lunch or dinner. Any other meal is either a picnic or cooked at the apartment,I always go self catering.

It's about priorities. I holiday every year in the school holidays. I drive a 2010 car that I don't owe any money on. DH is paying about 150pm for his car at the moment, once that is paid for he will continue to drive it rather than upgrade to a more expensive model. Most of our food shop is from Aldi, clothing mainly bought in the sales and very rarely designer. I love the experience of a family holiday and I do like to have a bit of luxury on holiday, so I will prioritise that.

May Half Term week is way cheaper than a week in July/Aug which is why we took our main holiday for many years.
Buying budget flights as soon as they are released the previous autumn also helps. SC accommodation prices depends on location but you have more choice and space then hotels. In the past, my buddget for a week's shorthaul for May half term for 2 adults & 2 DC for budget flights, airport car parking, car hire and 2 bed accommodation easily came in around £1.5K - 2K (including 2 bed hotel suites in Sardinia!) excluding spending on food/entertainment.
I knwo it's still possible because we have just returned from a week in the Balearics and flights, airport car parking, car hire, 3 bed accommodation for 4 adults came to £2K and the location was relatively expensive.

Have you looked at things like cottages.com? You’d be looking at some accommodation for you, not on a site but I’d imagine it might be less than a grand. Usually is for us, but I only have 2 kids and it may depend on which areas you are looking at.

We take home about £3500 and manage to have a foreign holiday and a couple of UK breaks. We save a set amount every month that pays for holidays, travel is something we prioritise as a family.

Our outgoings are nothing like yours though - our mortgage payments much smaller, no car payments as we own our older cars, childcare yes but less than yours. We don't do many expensive day trips or eat out often. The choices we've made, like having a smaller house mean we can take holidays.

Even when we were younger and we earned much less we still managed a couple of cheaper UK breaks every year. If your children are still little it's much easier to afford when they are small and you're not tied to school holidays, which often triple the price.