Do you prioritise spending money on holidays?

[Piratejenny99]

Just wondering for those who spend a lot on holidays each year if this is easily affordable or do you have to budget / prioritise to achieve this?

I have to admit I am a bit of a spender when it comes to holidays and I enjoy a bit of luxury, but I’m looking at holiday prices for some high-end short haul holidays and with price rises some of them are now coming in at around 10% of our yearly income after tax. We live in a modest house in an affordable area, drive one mid-range car that we own outright and don’t have childcare costs, so our monthly outgoings aren’t high. Even so this is a lot of money to spend on one holiday, it’s more than our yearly mortgage amount.

We wouldn’t necessarily have to cut back to afford something like this once a year but we certainly don’t have a matching year-round lifestyle and couldn’t pay it if we also had car loans / designer clothes / high mortgage in the mix too. Just wondering if anyone else is in a similar position and has decided to prioritise holidays or if I’m just being completely unrealistic and need to reign in my expectations!

It's probably best that I don't add up what i've spent on travel in the last couple of years! I don't do luxury, but I do frequent trips both UK and abroad so it all adds up. If it's what you enjoy and you can afford it then I don't see why not. I also have relatively low living costs, a modest house and a mid-range 8 year old car that spends a lot of time on the airport car park

Yes we do prioritise holidays. Most months we don't spend a lot. Definitely no designer clothes, make up, hair cuts, nothing on finance other then mortgage and no debt.

We have 2-3 holidays a year our most expensive being our ski trip around the 5k mark (family of 4).
Our other holidays are typically between 2 - 2.5k but I deal hunt a lot, watch prices and fly from English airports when it's not their holidays.

It's just our personal preference.

There are ways to get cheaper high end holidays the likes of secret escapes or "last minute" - typically I've found around 3 weeks before being the best time. Also check out different airports you will surprised how the prices change and £50ish for a Premier inn is definitely worth a longer car journey! The biggest difference we found was over 2k between Glasgow and Manchester.

Yes, we are high earners and spend about 15% of our post tax earnings on travel. We drive very old cars, shop in Lidl and don’t buy any nice clothes, jewellery etc. Looking at us you’d never think we have money. We do big holidays usually £10k plus.
We have to budget it in and every payday we transfer significant amounts into our holiday pot. We also accumulate air miles through credit cards and use free lounges with premium banking. I think you’d have to be really wealthy to not have to budget for it.

I do. I'd way rather have good holidays than a state of the art kitchen or bathroom or a new car.

That said, I do shop around, and most of the time - not always – get really good deals. I recently got a custom-made tour with private driver from a local travel agent for way less than a similar group tour with a well-known tour operator, which wasn't quite what we were looking for.

Yes, we cut back in other areas and prioritise travel and experiences with our children. Others might think we have it wrong, we don’t

Yes. Experiences make you happier than things.

Thanks for the replies so far. I agree with the idea of choosing experiences over things, particularly when our children are the right age to enjoy them. I have amazing memories of past holidays and I feel they are when we spend most quality time together as a family.

It would probably make sense to spread our travel budget more evenly rather than spending the majority on one single holiday but I have become too used to it and I can’t seem to get my head around spending what is still a relatively large amount of money on a holiday I am not going to enjoy as much if we choose something cheaper.

My parents have always been sensible with money and they have suddenly developed a liking for luxury holidays in their mid 70’s. I think they are realising it’s now or never!

No mortgage, no debt. Been on holiday more than we've been at home in the last year ... live rich, die poor.

To answer your question about whether it’s easily affordable or whether it takes budgeting - it’s a bit of both.

It’s affordable in the sense that our mortgage is a small percentage of our income (the sole advantage of having lost a parent in my 20s was the inheritance I was able to chuck into our home). We also put the maximum amount we can into our employers sharesave schemes each month and when the schemes mature each year it gives us a healthy holiday budget. I’ve been paying into it for such a long time I’m used to it just going straight out of my salary, it’s a good way of saving. We go abroad 3-4 times a year and could have cleared the mortgage if we’d stayed at home for the last five years, but that’s not what I choose to prioritise. I can make more money, I can’t make more time with my children.

We spend my (frankly, considerable) salary on holidays. I’m sure most people would think we are insane if they knew the numbers.

We don’t have car loans, mortgage, I don’t spend on beauty stuff (except 1) and we max out pensions. We don’t really have takeaways, don’t do gadgets, my DH is low maintenance. I don’t buy ‘stuff’, no school fees.
We don’t tart up the house or garden beyond basic.

If I did the other things we couldn’t spend it on what we do.

Yes. Have had eight foreign holidays in the last 13 months. Retiring next year at 55 and will do even more. We’re in that window of having good health, no elderly parents to care for (one left in care) and children that are now young adults and pretty self sufficient. Who knows what is around the corner?

Yes. I drive a small 11 year old car and live in a tiny cottage. No takeaways and rarely drink alcohol.

I spend about 20% of my net pay on holidays.

Our spend comes in at a similar percentage to yours. It doesn't feel like prioritising because I'm not really interested in some of the other things people often like to spend disposable income on. I don't want to live in an expensive area, get my nails done, buy takeaway coffees etc. In the same way that people who like those things might not be bothered about holidays.

No I don’t. The cost of a 4 star holiday is crazy in school holidays and I don’t want to fork out all that for 7days. I’d rather put my money into my house and improve it as I spend time there. But each to their own if you’ve got or spend it

Holidays also high priority in our household, aim for 3 or 4 trips abroad per year. We are lucky that we both have a good income and my husbands salary covers the household essentials, so my salary can be saved towards eventual uni fees and retirement/used for non-essentials. Our kids are in state schools, we share a car that is 12 years old, we definitely don't live a luxurious lifestyle. Rarely super luxurious hotels for us though, we don't really do package holidays, I like a multi-destination holiday or a city break, so I tend to organise everything myself. Usually I opt for cheaper accommodation if the location is good, as it's just for sleeping on the type of trips we do. I get the luxury thing more if the hotel is part of the destination if that makes sense.

Yes it’s what we love doing most so we make sure we go often.

Absolutely not. When our DC were young we always had a two week holiday but now I wouldn’t care if I never went on holiday again. I can’t be bothered with airports. However much we spent on hotels nothing measured up to our bedroom and bathroom at home.

Absolutely. We do have a good income, but even that considered we spend probably more on holidays compared to what others would be comfortable spending relatively speaking. We could be overpaying the mortgage or getting more in our rather pitiful savings, but you only live once and holidays are a big part of living for me.

We’re sensible to a degree (excellent pensions, mortgage, insurances, some…savings) but we are very spendy with holidays. I am comfortable our income, risk profile of our jobs etc that it is appropriate. We had our kids young and will have decades ahead of us to reduce the mortgage etc, I want to enjoy my family now whilst I have children and show them as much of the world as I can.

As a comparison, next year we’re spending almost 20% of our annual income post tax on holidays (although we don’t do that every year, it’s normally around 10%).

Each to their own - a luxury holiday would make me fret that I’d overspent, and I’ve trained myself to enjoy a “bargainous trip”.

But then again everyone likes to splurge now and again!

So our holidays are often a bit of a mash-up, we might drive down to the Alps and book into a fairly cheap Pension and spend a week hiking and exploring, but we might splurge on a few nights at EuropaPark on the way back which costs as much as the whole of the previous week!

I definitely do consider budget, of course, but I don’t let it constrain our plans entirely.

Good grief that would frighten me a bit! Hope you have a good trip wherever it is.

holidays are important to us, but not bothered about luxury hotels. We stayed at the ibis styles in Edinburgh this year, fab location, decent price and had a great time. We do, however, travel business class if it’s over 7 hours: no night flights in economy for me.

I have to stress that really isn’t normal for us! It’s a special holiday and we’ve spent less this year so over 2 years it probably averages out closer to 10%!

Yeah we prioritise holidays. We don’t necessarily do luxury but i know specifically what I want and accept that sometimes the price tag is higher. For us we spend more to avoid flying at antisocial times, and choose suites/apartment type rooms in a hotel so DS has his own room and a proper bed.

For my week in the summer hols I like a swim up room but the rest of the time I’m less fussed.

We have one DC in private school. Our house is nice but in all honesty I’d rather spend 20k on holidays (this would cover quite a few) than have a new kitchen.

Yes, it's my top spending priority at this stage in my life. Mortgage paid off, DC left home, early stage of retirement.

Currently about 50% of our outgoings are on travel spends. We keep other costs low to help make this work, very low spend on housing, cars, tech, beauty etc. We do still spend a fair bit on socialising.

We didn't travel more than a couple of times a year whilst working and DC at home and I doubt we will be able to continue at this rate forever so am taking the opportunity now whilst it is here. It's great fun!