What is your summer holiday budget versus household income?

[GreatWhiteWail]

DH and I are not aligned on what our holiday budget should be. Because of covid and having young children we haven't previously gone on a (scottish-) school-holiday-time family holiday to a resort. When it was just DH and I we did more city-break type holidays (and even though we went to nice hotels, it didn't cost that much). We have never done a 'week in the sun with a beach/pool' type holidays so have no frame of reference. I'm talking about just a European resort for 1 week plus flights for 4.

I know there will be outliers as some people have no mortgage or childcare costs etc and will spend a lot more than is typical. but I'd be interested to know what's normal for different family incomes.

Is £5k for a holiday for 2 adults and 2 children a 'reasonable' budget? We each earn approx £60k. DH says people earning this would spend much more than that. I am uncomfortable with £5k, as although we can afford it, it seems so much money to just spend (rather than save or spend on the house etc).

Apologies for the nosiness, I don't want to ask friends as although I really want to know if this is normal, it would be rude to ask what they earn!

Combined gross income £181k. One child. School fees. We save £500 pm so a budget of £6,000. We tend to spend £5,000+ on ten days in Europe in the summer. Plus £8-900 for Centre Parcs. Then often use additional income/savings for a city break as well. So real budget more like £6,750 probably. 3.7% of earnings. 4% if you take school fees off first.

Our household income is £140k and we are mortgage free. We prioritise holidays (ie just share one second hand car, bought outright) and spend £12-13k for 2.5 weeks in summer, another £2-3 for a week at Easter or Whitsun, for overseas hols, then another 2 or
3 weekends (hotel or cottage) in UK. We probably spend £18-20k per year which includes all food and other spends.

OP, a thought, those that spend less on holidays might not pop up and share as easily as those that spend an arm and a leg?!

We've got a pretty decent household income. I wouldn't dream of blowing the sort of money being bandied about on this thread every year on holidays. I'm quite shocked actually - although this is clearly one of the most skewed mumsnet threads I've seen in a while....

I’m really surprised by this thread, last year we went on a 5 AI holiday for a week and that cost £5k for 2a & 2c (1 free child place) that was a “treat” holiday and this year we’re going to a 4 AI holiday for a week and that has cost £4k. Our household income is £120k. There were loads of cheaper AI holidays available so I’m surprised everyone seems to be spending so much!

So am I

This! I mentioned something similar above! You won’t find a decent cross section on a thread like this.

To be fair there always holiday options cheaper than the ones I book, but they are not locations or hotels I would want to stay in.

This year is likely to be our last family holiday for a while as our dd’s are at the age they will want to go with friends next year. We are doing 3 weeks in America and all in will costs around £15k, on a usual year we do 2 weeks AI and the cost is between 7-9k depending on what country we visit.
I would say 5k will be tight

We prioritise holidays. Prob spend 10-12% on our household income which includes skiing trip, canaries/ morrocco at Easter, 1 wk AI in July (turkey/ Greece), a few European city breaks and CP for a week at NY. I do a lot of research and check between sites for good deals and child free places.
paid 2.8k for this years summer holiday in turkey. Two adults 1 teen.

We will spend around 3k travelling around in our Motorhome for a month over summer hols, the initial outlay for the vehicle was 70k though.

We have always spent a lot on holidays as a % of income I would ascertain around 8.5% of income most years. This was when children were small as well. Last time an adult child came along on holiday with us was 2 year ago, we also generously paid for their partner, they split up a few months later, not doing that again.

There are loads of sub £5k AI holidays available but, as you say, they’re not something some people would want.

ETA - £1800pcm is high for a mortgage I'd say, I'd assume you're Bearsden or Leith or somewhere with a mortgage like that.

Yes we're in an expensive bit of Scotland. So although compared to the average for Scotland that mortgage might sound a lot, I hope it's relatively 'normal' for where we are, at our age. But maybe it's not! If not, I don't know how everyone else is living there unless they've been gifted a significant 6-figure deposit.

This is something else DH and I disagree about; I want to mortgage paid off ASAP, he thinks it's all normal and I should stop thinking about it.

This is why I thought that household income and holiday budget were useful, and why I'd given my own. It's helpful to see both those higher and lower, and what difference that makes to holiday budgets. I've always wondered who the people are who spend 5-figures on a week's holiday! This helps the context of my own decisions.

Oh my goodness.

<faints>

Is there something uncomfortable or feels like waste op? In many ways the holiday feels like there is a general difference (not a serious one) about the approach to money.

Austria is great value in the summer for an adventurous holiday.

We couldn’t continue with our jobs without a proper break, so we do invest in ourselves and our energy levels. If we didn’t need it as much as we do we wouldn’t bother spending so much, as you can see the world in lots of different ways. I think it depends what your holidays are for op, the kind of jobs you both have and how much you need them to be relaxing/recharging etc - and it might be different for your dh, so worth factoring in.

Ah we did some great Voyage Prive breaks back in the day! Some of them were brand new hotels which still had some teething issues, which was probably why they were cheaper, but that was no issue whatsoever when it was just DH and I with a city to explore. With children you need reliable though.

This is also very useful, as when I said I wanted to get the mortgage down, DH said "and then will you spend all the freed-up mortgage money on holidays and I was horrified and said no

But this sounds like such a money-worry-free life!

This is something else DH and I disagree about; I want to mortgage paid off ASAP, he thinks it's all normal and I should stop thinking about it.

Is it possible to have both mindsets? I don’t think about my mortgage day to day, it’s paid with all the other bills. I do however want it paid off so if I have extra money I’ll over pay, but I don’t sacrifice other areas of life to do so.

Frankly, we don't have a summer holiday budget. They cost too much and our priorities lay elsewhere right now. Household income is circa £50k.

£1,000 and income £100k , week in a cottage somewhere 2 adults and one dog

This is so helpful. Thank you.

I had no idea prices varied so much.

2 are mine and 2 my husbands, we need to plan as they obviously gonna with their other parents etc so you can’t really just drop everything and go and they are all too old to be missing school time ( though one of mine is homeschooled)

We’ve gone during the summer and October half terms the prices generally are the same, I sort 4* and above 4 trip advisor and above.

We don’t have a holiday budget, if we see something we like we go for it.

we earn approx 60k between us and our summer holiday is £3500 for a fortnight and prob another £1000 spending money, we also have a winter week away approx £1500 usually go all inclusive for this holiday. We usually have a weekend away 3 or 4 times a year too.

our mortgage is quite small and dh’s wages cover all bills , so my wages are for treating ourselves.

Fair enough you need the forward planning which makes things more pricey.

Although the only time of year I probably wouldn’t take them out would be y11. I would move the 2 days though so it was end of school year x