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.

Op how old are your kids? I'm assuming quite small if you're paying for childcare. In which case, take them camping or to a holiday park in the Uk - it's not glamorous but they will love it, and then when they're in school and you have more money each month, then do the fancy foreign holidays. Before the age of about 6-7 they won't remember much about it, so you may as well stay local & save money while you can get away with it. A week in Cromer will do it 😊When they're late teens and eat adult meals and no flight discount, that's when you'll need the money!

Different prioroties and different expenses. We would rather spend money doing things than buying stuff. So whilst our DC is small we are buying birthday and Christmas gifts secondhand and spending as little as possible. We try to do free days out most of the time and take a picnic with us.

Once your DC are in school you will be significantly better off and at their age they would be happy going to butlins for a few nights.

Can you downgrade the cars and save a bit there? Then put that money into a savings account, and perhaps afford a holiday in 18 months?

Not sure from your breakdown where food costs are, but assuming you have £1k a month left for spends after food shopping, book the holiday and pay £400 a month to the holiday company. Butlins, Haven and Hoseasons definitely just need a deposit up front and then the rest you pay at your own convenience, although you usually do have to pay it within about 6 weeks of the holiday. So if you book now for August you will have 5 months to pay for it. You will have to cut your cloth within the £600 budget you have remaining.

We had/have far less than £1k after all bills and food are paid, but we always have a holiday.

We are public sector workers. Ten years ago we had private villa holidays. Our salaries have not kept with inflation and we have kids in uni. Now I have a very good tent and a roof rack and have brilliant holidays with the youngest DC. It’s cheaper to drive to Europe and camp than it is to stay in the UK.

You are at an expensive time of life and have large outgoings.

Having said that, there are many many UK holiday cottages available in UK outside school holidays for well under £1000 for a week.
Editing just read you have only 1 DC - Assuming they are under 5 there are approx 800 Jet2 holidays available in first week of May for under £1000 also.

So it's a combination of existing commitments, priorities and knowing how/where to find a cheap holiday that will work for you.
We prioritise holidays over everything else - if I were you I would have cheaper days out, stay local to save petrol and take a packed lunch instead of buying food - you only need to find £20 each week and you'll have a week in the sun. Find £30 pounds each week and you have have a separate week away in UK as well.

When we were in the expensive childcare years we did UK holidays such as camping, going to stay with friends/ relatives in different parts of the country and doing days out. We house sat for a friend who lives by the sea. Some friends of ours did house swaps when their kids were little.

It does get easier as the kids get older

But if you do that every week, that's £240 a month. Add it up over a year and that's almost £3000 which would easily get you a holiday abroad.

When I was little, "big" days out like that were something we did once per school holiday - it certainly wasn't any kind of regular occurrence. Normal weekends would be spent at the local park, or going for a bike ride, or playing at home in the garden. You don't need to spend £60 on entertainment if you don't want to.

It’s a question of priorities really. You are prioritising certain things over holidays.

Firstly, your two expensive cars.

Secondly, whatever you’re spending that £1k on every month.

You aren’t doing anything wrong. It’s your money to spend as you wish. But there will be people who, with the same income and fixed outgoings as you, would cut back in areas you choose not to so that they can prioritise holidays.

Well.... people have different priorities, plus you are at a very expensive stage. When the kids were little and in childcare we had camping holidays. We have never prioritised cars or tech. Dh and I have never bought a new car or car on finance and we bought our first ever new TV 6 months ago (been gifted used by friends and family previously). We cycled to work (city) and when we finally really needed a car the other person cycled and used kiddy seats to cycle them to childcare. The car we have now is only the second car we have ever owned (and we are early 50's), we drove the last one into the ground and fully intend to do the same with this one. We put up with a leaky cold house in the childcare years because it wasn't the priority....We did still manage an annual holiday and actually mostly 'abroad' (cheap ferry to France, being prepared to drive and using municipal campsites).
On the car front cars these days are so much more reliable for years and years you be much better off taking a loan and spending 3k on a used car that will run for the next 5 years or more than the eye watering monthly payments......

When our childcare costs were that high we did Butlins/haven/parkdene holidays in the uk. We are taking the kids abroad for the first time this year as we now have much lower childcare costs. However I do know people who stick it on the credit card and have more costly abroad holidays and just pay it off over the year.

Its this, I can easily afford a holiday. In the past at the same point in life as the OP maybe not.

I think it's just a spendy or save-y mindset. Day out to a farm with a visit to the cafe is £60. Or find a free woodland/park/beach and bring a flask and sandwiches.

You have high fixed outgoings but if you track your spending and change your mindset you will find ways to save.

Definitely. We stayed in a 3 bed semi even after various promotions. So we could have afforded a mortgage for a 4 bed detached but didn’t want to. Likewise we’ve always paid cash for fairly old cars. It’s meant we’ve had enough disposable income each month for days out, some nice holidays, etc.

and before promotions and when we still had childcare bills we camped every year.

Our solution was camping. We bought a 20-year-old folding camper (easier to tow and store than a caravan but all the same facilities inside) for £1600 and had lots of lovely holidays in summer and half terms. Did us for a good few years and then we sold it on to another family so they could have adventures with their kids.

We have similar income to you but much small mortgage and childcare bills so that's the difference I think. In a few years you will have that childcare money to pay for amazing holidays, it's a huge amount!

@yeesh 450 a month for two cars is very cheap. These are not new.

We didn't go away!

@biscuitsandbooks thank you, hadn’t thought of camping!

Exactly this. Plan ahead.

What sort of holiday are you after?

We holidayed in a self-catering in Wales when the kids were little, with a max budget of £1000 for accommodation for a week (we went for a week). Beaches cost nothing to go to, and parking and ice creams are cheaper there than in the South West (don’t know about the rest of the UK).

Ferry self-drive holidays, self-catering are worth exploring. Jet2 do free child spaces so that is worth looking at. Self-catering is cheaper. You can pay monthly with Jet2 so actually easier to budget for than paying for a holiday cottage in one month.

We have done lots of camping too.

The above said, holidays do seem more expensive now. Could you go with grandparents and share the cost?

Don’t do very many £58 days out either. Get a membership somewhere close by and take picnics.

You earn a lot but you also spend a lot. You don't need brand new cars but you chose to have them. I'm not sure about your mortgage, is that due to rising rates and living in a very expensive area in which case not much you can do about it. If downsizing or moving to a cheaper area is an option that's one way to be able to afford holidays. Also you need to think about different sorts of holidays. We did a lot of caravans / camping in the UK and then some cheap packages where we only went for one week and did bed and breakfast.

I have almost similar household take home, except no kids and mortgage is £480 per month, car is £320. So we have plenty of cash for nice holidays. You've just chosen to have kids instead and pay childcare and a large mortgage. Can't have it all on this wage.

We earn around 4000 after tax, mortgage and all bills and food is about 1900.

We live in a small house in a cheap area, drive a small, paid off car and prioritise holidays over evertthing else.

We save around 800 per month for holidays and go 3 to 4 times a year.

You will either need to work out how to earn more or cut some of your huge expenses x

Well, there's your answer.

We enjoy holidays and prioritise them so minimise spending in other places. Days out are parks with a picnic (yes, even in the rain). £58 on a day out to "nowhere glamourous" doesn't happen. Based on the childcare your child is quite young and would be happy with something simple.