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.

You absolutely can get a holiday for 3 people in the UK for £1k either in or outside of term time.
Your childcare costs are high, your car expenses are high - not everyone has these.
Lots to be grateful for and you've got an opportunity to really budget if you want to.

It really isn’t cheap. Unless you’re paying off a loan over a very short time period - in which case, think about extending it if you need to. You’d pay more interest, but the monthly payments would reduce.

You will have to upgrade at some point, esp if DC are a boy and a girl. Meanwhile, good for you.

@biscuitsandbooks a lot of people don’t have a choice because of their jobs. I couldn’t move to a cheaper coastal area and earn the same as I do in a city

I would actually sit down and go through everything to see where your money is going and if you can look at getting things for less cost or if you actually need everything you spend money on

Even down to categorising how much you spend on these days out and what exactly you are spending £58 on.
Have a budget for birthdays etc
Look if there is a cheaper day out through Groupon Wowcher etc Taking a packed lunch etc
Filling up your cars in the cheapest petrol station
Are you paying over the odds for your gas/electric/mobile/insurances etc
Going vegetarian/vegan for a couple of days per week

These suggestions might only save £10 or £20 per week but over a course of a year that is £500-£1000 per year.

If you are saving already £300 per month then you could end up with nearly £5000 savings per year or maybe more.

More than enough to have a nice holiday and have an emergency fund and savings

At those ages I'd stop dropping £60 on a few hours at a farm and book a Monday to Friday Butlins or haven.

They are dead cheap mid week outside of school holidays. Great for little ones and feel like more than just spending £60 for the sake of a bit of entertainment.

Or do Center parcs before school holidays kick in

We used to book a cheap premier inn for the Sunday night so we could extend the holiday and travel while it's quiet rather than having to factor in rush hour on Monday.

We have similar income but our mortgage is now only 460 a month, don't have childcare anymore, cars 300. The answer is they have lower expenditure. Itl be easier when your children aren't needing childcare.

Our income is higher than yours, our mortgage is much less and we only have wrap around and holiday childcare fees now, that’s how we can afford it.

Forget UK holidays (depressing and expensive) and go all inclusive abroad. You can do Malta is June and September for £400pp

What about house swap? That would reduce the housing costs to almost nothing

They make sacrifices and save. You've got to decide what's more important regular days out, a fancy car or holidays

I have no childcare, no car payments, my mortgage is a quarter of yours. Once the childcare years are over it will get a lot easier,

We use a payment plan for hoildays ( all paid before going) So it comes out of our monthly outgoings and no need for a big one off payment which we couldn't afford

We earn less but we have a small house and one car. We don't have childcare costs anymore thankfully but when my kids were very small we holidayed camping in the UK during term time.

I just this minute booked one which came up £2,000. Doable on our salary with one 2 year old. Then came to paying and choosing family room, seat on plane, morning flights added 1k!! Needless to say it went on credit card but definitely will not be able to afford this every 1-2 years!

@Honeysuckle19

If you don't have a mortgage or rent to pay, how can you not afford it? Your money must be going somewhere.

We have a similar income but our house is only 600 a month and no childcare to pay anymore I think that's the reason we normally can go twice a year and pay it off as quickly as possible each month. When I was paying out childcare sadly we had barely any disposable income but it was important to both go to work and see the bigger picture we would at most in those days do a caravan holiday a year. It won't be like this forever op x

Childcare is the kicker. For us at this point it was Sun holidays and camping. It gets easier when they go to school.

Also OP look at a website/app called HolidayPirates. They have staff who work full-time scouring the internet to find bargains. I’ve had some cracking cheap holidays there and seen half of Europe whilst on a minimum wage job.

I've got a Mon to Fri in the Easter holidays for under £200. Self catering but we'd eat anyway so no additional expense or effort there unless we have a treat meal out or takeaway. I guess it comes down to what kind of holidays you are open to.

@Ht1 I think it would be helpful for you to literally draw up a budget, including everything the poster above has listed and anything else not included there. Doesn't matter how small the item is. If it's an annual payment for something, like £60 - that is £5 a month. Coffees etc while at work? All everyday expenses.

Keep accounts and save for annual payments every month. I think if you do that you will be able to see what that £1000 a month is being spent on and it may give you an idea of where you could make savings to pay for some kind of holiday. At the end of the day, it is down to choices as to where your biggest priorities are? You have high Mortgage and child minding costs. So you don't have enough to do everything.

Minimum spend of £1000 for a week's holiday in the UK isn't the best you can do either. We have stayed in a lovely self catering holiday cottage in Mid-Wales for several years. We are getting TWO weeks for that approximate cost (in 2025). Sleeps 5 of us.

You may not be able to earn the same, but that doesn't mean you'd be worse off.

DH and I both chose to buy in a cheap area knowing our income would be limited, but we have a better overall quality of life because we don't have big commutes, we don't have huge housing costs - and as a result we have more income to spend on fun stuff.

People say they don't have a choice but they do - nobody has to live in an expensive city and work a city-based job. But if you do, you have to accept that comes with a big financial commitment that wouldn't be needed if you chose a different lifestyle.

Lower your expectations of what a holiday is. There are cheap ways to do it. As a single mum, I've always managed to do something with DC, even at the point when I was paying for childcare, but we don't have extravagant holidays.

Once you don't have the burden of childcare you'll have plenty of disposable income.

You make choices. You’ve chosen cars (as in could when cheaper ones), a fairly high mortgage relative to your income etc. Spend less on says out and you’ll have a lot more.

I'm sure it's been said by now but package holidays are v expensive.
Go DIY book your own flights, accmd.
Camp sites book direct with the owners and avoid euro camp accmd.

Perhaps do small holiday this year and start to properly set aside money for holidays this year each month.
Make your 1 grand work hard each month and actually assign it somewhere