would you stop overpaying the mortgage in order to get a holiday every year?

[FayeGovan]

I know the thread title is a bit daft

my situation is this

we have been overpaying the mortgage to try to clear it, its now at £18000

I hate debt and would like the mortgage gone

BUT we live quite frugally, we don't earn much £26k between us, and we have only had one good (eg. abroad) holiday in 16 years with the kids

the kids are now teenagers and we have done the beach, walking, Butlins type of things in England for the other 15 years and frankly I'm fed up with it and we have tried everywhere we can think of

now I know kids don't need holidays/we don't either...but it would just be so nice to have even a week abroad, we live in Scotland where it seems to rain 51 weeks of the year and it would be nice now the kids are getting older to treat them and us to a week abroad once a year

question is, roughly how much would one week abroad for 4 of us be (not luxury on our income), or would \i be better to keep paying off the mortgage and face another soggy beach in England again?

thanks

the dc's would love to visit the beach and Barcelona, any ideas would be appreciated!

Many of our fondest memories as a family are from our different holidays, and I wouldn't change that for the world. Being sensible and not over-stretching yourself is obviously important, but being too focussed on no debt - when after all your mortgage is tiny, and mortgages are cheap at the moment -
is losing out on the opportunity of making some lovely family memories.

Have fun!

Barcelona is on the beach, so it's perfect - two holidays in one!

Cripes, we are late 40s and have £180,000 o/s on the mortgage.

We go on one 2 week holiday every year. Since having the dc it hasn't been outside of UK or Europe (can't afford the flights ).

Can you not go a wee bit wild and expand your budget and go for 2 weeks somewhere really nice and sunny?

Barcelona is a wonderful city, you cannot fail to have a brilliant time there.

Take the holiday - life is too short and the children aren't going to have fond memories of you paying off the mortgage

Holiday! Sounds like you deserve it. I live in Scotland too, and I know that we need our sunshine / vitamin D - doctors' orders!

By the way, I can't wait for the day that our mortgage is as small as yours! If you've worked hard and lived frugally that long to get it to that level, a wee break away won't do any harm.

We are like you, we've scrimped and saved for a long time in order to pay the mortgage off early. We paid the mortgage off 4 years ago and the one thing I didn't mind spending out on was holidays and days out and fun things.

I didn't mind having crappy 'stuff', but you can't really get time back, so enjoy it while you can!

If you can extend your budget to pay for flights to somewhere like S.E Asia or somewhere else where your money will go further, you could have an amazing few weeks in luxury. We've been to Malaysia a couple of times and stayed in the most amazing hotels, ate in beautiful restaurants and basically spoiled ourselves for very little spending money when out there (relative to this country).

wow dueinsept, I hadn't imagined going anywhere as far as that!

sounds lovely!

today I just kept thinking that although I am always doing the sensible thing in my life, "I am forgetting to have fun". Don't make that mistake. We have just had 3 overseas hols with our kids, 17,13,4 and its not been enough.

Personally I would only overpay if I had spare money after all outgoings, and for me I would class a holiday as a necessary outgoing. You only live once!

My parents did exactly what you have done. Looking back at my childhood I wish we'd had just a few good, exciting, foreign holidays (as they were referred to then!). Instead of the camp sites and camper van excursions in the UK which is what we actually had. You can never build memories again with your children and I really envy friends who learned to ski, with their folks, when they were kids! I will make sure my own children have some great holidays with my and DP - and yes, I do overpay the mortgage a bit, but not to the point of leaving us hard-up.

A hoiday abroad does not have to be that expensive you know . When the kids were at school you saved a heap by not going as basically the companies really hike up their prices in the high season the only time you can go when you have kids at school.. Now you can go off season and you can get some really good deals... enjoy

Go on. Give you and your family a fantastic holiday in the sun. You'll love it. You'll get more out of it than the people who do it every year.

I order you to go on holiday. Barcelona with teenagers will be brilliant.

Family holidays are a major source of memories. If it was a case of that or not paying the mortgage at all, then obviously it'd be a no-no. But you're talking about over payments. That's a luxury in my book.
I share your dislike of debt, but I don't class the mortgage as a debt in the same way as a credit card/HP. It's a necessary expenditure for the roof over your head.
GET YOURSELF ON A PLANE!

We're in a pretty similar place to you (in terms of ages, ages of dcs, over paying and having a relatively small mtg) but for me, a holiday would definitely win over continuing to overpay. I'm not convinced I'd want to extend the term of the mtg, and only you can do the maths, but I'd defintiely be looking for 2 weeks in the sun to create the memoreis while the cdcs still want to come with you.

have no been thinking and am looking at California (eeek)

love it there

am fed up being sensible and good

am going to stop overpaying but not extend term

need to work out budget

see this is what happens when you're on here and you meet crazyfolk like minded people

"It doesn't do to dwell on dreams and forget to live" said Albus Dumbledore a very wise man.

Have the holidays.

You'll be mortgage free in six years and by then your dc wont want to holiday with their parents so do it now.

my trouble is I can't imagine a life where the kids don't do everything with us

we don't have any help at all so unless the kids are at a sleepover with a friend, they are always with us, weekends are spent doing their stuff, we've forgotten what WE actually like!

one day they won't want to always be with us and that's hard to imagine, although quite a liberating thought!

as we haven't booked an abroad holiday for sooo long, where is the best place to start/go to? I always used to book through Thomas Cook or somewhere like that, but now the internet is her, should I be going online? I'm not very confident about booking it all myself, I'd like some expert advice, from someone who knows what they're taking about!

Yay!
Go on over to holidays and ask. You will get loads of advice there. I'm so glad you're going.

thanks nkf

will try to post something coherent on holidays, will try not to look too thick!

If you haven't done an abroad holiday in a while, and you want a relatively stress free option, go with a Tour Operator. That way not only is it a one stop thing but you are also protected should airlines / hotels etc go bust.

Look around online with the dcs to see what sort of places are good, where they want to go, activities they like, and once you know where you want to be and what sort of hotel (self catering, B&B all inclusive, private villa) pop and see a tour operator to talk it all through and check dates and prices.

Somewhere self catering will normally be located within walking distance to bars, restaurants, local beaches etc. If you go AI, you may be a little way out (drive or coach) to activites, but will have own beach and bars and restaurants on site.

Have a chat with the dcs, see what sort of holiday they envisage and make sure where ever you go theres a Water Park near as it is a great day out with teenagers!