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.

We're probably similar to you, family of 3, both work, need childcare. We follow a 0 budget so that £1000 after everything is completely allocated - we have pots for holidays, savings, insurance, birthdays, gifts, days out etc. we manage fine but we budget literally every penny

We find UK holidays outside of school holidays very affordable. Our kids are still very little so are happy with haven and beach type holidays. We've just booked a haven holiday in the spring 4 nights, gold caravan for just over £200. If you don't mind saver caravans the same holiday is £75. It's self catering too so we save some money by sorting our own food. We do this type of holiday a few times throughout the year and the kids absolutely love it. We also go away with family a lot to spread the cost if we go somewhere like centre parcs at Christmas. When they're older and we have more disposable income we will look at abroad holidays again but for now we'd rather save our money whilst they're still tiny.

My top limit for a car is 5k or 6k, I was having a peruse last night as was having a little think about whether I need to start thinking about changing mine. Plenty of options there

These would be bought outright or very cheap loan. No where near that sort of money and I keep a car for around 10 years, its already around 10 years old when I get them

I would never prioritise a car over holidays, I live for my holidays and have about 6 or 7 a year (I include short breaks in that and call those holidays).

I would be very upset if I didnt go away every other month.

We go camping. Cheap as chips, kids love it.

As others have said, you have high childcare costs. We don't have any now, also out mortgage is under 500 a month, and slightly more take home per month. Just try and save each month, or book in advance and pay some off each month until your childcare costs have gone

As a quick comparison if this helps, we take home a similar sum.

Mortgage £500
Childcare £0. Kids older
Car Payments £0. Company car and 2nd car bought cash.

These 3 items alone gives us £3k more monthly disposable income.

We earn less than you but mortgage £500 and cars are owned.
We are past the childcare stage now but we try to have a holiday every year (even back then) - it's a priority.
It doesn't have to be a week, a long weekend can be so refreshing, and there definitely nice places to stay outside of school holidays for under £1000. Flights can be dirt cheap too if you are flexible.
In a few years you'll be stuck with school holidays and while you save on childcare, it's a bit of a killer.

We own our car outright now (plan to run this one in to the ground but it’s still only 8 years old) and we’re no longer paying childcare anymore. Think about it, once that childcare bill is gone you’re £1400 better off a month. That’s when you can afford the holidays!

It is really difficult while you're paying so much for childcare - it will get easier. Though you'll then be met with the next problem of crazy school holiday prices 😬

When our kids were little we used to do Eurocamp every year, which we loved. We used to go in September, so it was a really pleasant temperature but prices were cheap. I've just had a look on the site we used to go to (Le Croix du Vieux Pont, about an hour from Paris and really family friendly) and for a random week in September they have cabins/mobile homes for £240 per family. We used to get the Dover- Calais ferry over which is really cheap, and break the journey up with an overnight stay in the UK on our way to Dover (as we're in the north). It was fab and really affordable!

I got a 10k car loan at 2.5pc from Sainsbury's bank. Just finished paying off it was £205 a month for an 18 month old Aygo which cost me £8000. The car will probably be good for another 10 years, cost £170 per year for insurance and is free road tax. It's the choices you make. Everyone on my road has SUVs and Porsche 4x4s and fancy electric cars for their second vehicle. That's their choices. They don't go on holiday either. We have done recently Seychelles, Caribbean, Singapore, Poland Amsterdam, Croatia a med cruise. You have prioritised fancy cars like they have.

Exactly. We bought a house here (in an also-often-named-shit-town) because it was half the price of the same type of house where we used to live. We have a lot more disposable income here because of that choice!

Something we've started doing is going away for a few days rather than a full week, especially in Europe of it's not too far away. A week can sometimes feel a bit long for us anyway, and boredom can set in a bit. This can cut the cost in half but we've still felt we've had a nice break.

Me and my partner earn around 4500 between us after tax/pensions however all our bills and mortgage is 1600. We no longer have childcare payments. Hang in there, it gets easier when you don't have to pay a chunk of your salary. It'll go down with free hours etc

I try to book months in advance and pay it up monthly.

You’re starting to see it.

You spent £58 on a fairly meh day out.

You could have spent <£20 on a trip to the local park or national trust grounds or river to feed the ducks.

Realistically everyone has to make choices about how they spend their money. It seems like you’ve got a high income, but there’s a hefty childcare cost sitting there to enable it, so in many ways your income isn’t as high as you’d think in real terms.
You’re choosing to run two expensive cars. You’re choosing to do expensive days out and activities on a regular basis.

When you start choosing all of those things, then you choose not to have much available for holidays.

(Also, look at a 3 bed Eurocamp cabin somewhere - your holiday costs might get more realistic).

We book cheap flights and air bnb usually.
Book the flights as early as possible.
Start putting money aside for accommodation and really save on other stuff.
We get a takeaway once or twice a month and even then, I sometimes cook rice at home if it's Indian.
We don't buy alcohol.
Our days out are mostly to cheap or free places like galleries, museums, beaches, forests. We might go swimming or cinema and go to a vue, taking water and sweets ourselves and maybe buying popcorn.
We go out a lot but I don't spend lots.

Yep, exactly!

I moved away from where my parents live because although we could have bought a house there, it would have swallowed up loads of our income and we didn't think it was worth the trade off.

As it is, we have plenty of income left each month and never worry about money. But if we'd bought just 40 minutes away, our situation would be so different. Lots of people don't think long-term when they make big financial commitments, imo.

I disagree that the car payments are what is driving this.

Your mortgage and childcare are taking up 60% of your total disposable income. So it’s a question of waiting for your mortgage renewal and trying to secure a better rate, and for the kids to age out of expensive childcare.

For comparison, my HH income after tax is a bit more than yours, but my mortgage is 50% less and childcare around 1/3 of yours (TFC + funded hours help massively). For what it’s worth, I don’t go on holidays either as I’m focused on saving at the moment, but I feel like I have the opportunity to do so if I wanted, with my bills vs income being as they are.

I understand the thoughts behind your question though, it must feel like you are working so hard and reaping so little at the moment. Hang in there, it will get better 😊

You can't afford it because you've chosen to spend all your money on other things, like a big house and nice cars. You could buy a couple of reliable but not very comfortable Ford Fiestas for £1k each and buy a 2 bed terrace up North for £150k, and set a strict budget so that £1k a month isn't just going on "birthdays and petrol" but I'm guessing that's not the lifestyle you want.

When you no longer have to pay childcare, you'll have £16,800 spare for holidays and savings every year which is massive.

Also we did uk holidays mainly
Due to Covid but we was going butlins with food in term time for less than 200 for the tots week !

How essential are holidays? As a child my parents would remind me that I lived in Devon and that many people save all year around to spend 2 weeks in a caravan in Devon. We used to have some days out at the seaside, walks in the woods, picnics in National Trust grounds and were allowed to camp in the garden. We never went away.

Book 18 months in advance and make monthly payments. We usually use jet2 or TUI.

That's such an arsey answer.

I hear you OP. You should be able to afford a holiday then you both work full time and earn decent money. The cost of holidays has really gone up in recent years! But as others are saying, once you don't have childcare costs it will get easier.

What we do is holiday home swaps. It's not for everyone but we have had great holidays in the UK and abroad and all you pay for is your transport there. In the UK the cost is almost nothing.

I'm a single parent 2 kids. Income is ok at £3200 pcm. Mortgage £1000pcm.

We have great holidays but I don't pay childcare anymore and I budget ruthlessly.

Purposeful frugality can really work. I rarely buy lunches/coffees etc. I budget for everything & it quickly becomes very clear what you can & can't afford. Tracking spending enable you to make clear choices.

I still had holidays when I was paying £14,000 childcare per year (those were tough years) but they were cheaper options and less of them.

3 bed caravan in the uk on the beach is under £300 for a week during half term. The kids love it!