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Original poster

How much do you spend on a holiday

127 replies

PerkyOchrePeer · 01/02/2025 20:14

I am following a vlog from someone who is spending six months travelling to Australia New Zealand and the far East. The total cost of the trip is 10,000 pounds. They are staying in youth hospitals which are very cheap but I'm not sure whether I would want to spend that amount of money for six months is that cheap I've no

Also I would like to know whether people think it's worth spending all that for travel or would you rather spend it on furniture for your home or upgrading your kitchen or putting it towards buying a new car

OP posts:
oldandknackerd · 02/02/2025 12:57

Less than 2k for a 3 week holiday in the sun with teen DS (so school hols) ..Will probably spend another 1-1.5k on food and trips etc whilst there .its basic 3* sc accommodation but has a pool, near the beach,is clean and ideally located for everything we need. For context I'm a single parent earning not much more than mw so it has to be on a strict budget.
I do sacrifice other spending to be able to afford it but it's a priority for me .

sansou · 02/02/2025 13:23

I have already booked all the components for our main 2 week holiday this summer. Last Nov, I booked return shorthaul flights for <£200pp. Today, it costs approx £350pp. Accommodation, I booked in Dec because I could see there was increasingly less choice as more places were booked up for our dates. I finally booked car hire and airport car parking in the last month. For 2 weeks in July and for premium Airbnbs ( I'm prepared to pay for "naice" beachfront location), it comes to approx £1300 pp for all the above excluding food, etc. There's only 3 of us unless eldest DC decides to come with us last minute in which case, it justs another flight on top. This has been approximately the same spend for the last 3 summers in Northern Spain, Portuguese coastine and the Norwegian fjords so I guess i must have a mental budget of £4K excluding spends for 2 weeks shorthaul.You can defintely do it for less because I did not book modest accommodation and if you booked the flights earlier, it would have been even cheaper.

sansou · 02/02/2025 13:28

Can't wait to retire with DH in the next 5 years and to go on a middle age gap year. I would definitely travel 3-6 mths to Australasia and to South America. Can't exactly do it whilst youngest DC is still at 6th form and we're tied to 2 weeks annual leave at most due to work.

Original poster
PerkyOchrePeer · 02/02/2025 17:02

6 months travel is an extended holiday

OP posts:
Original poster
PerkyOchrePeer · 02/02/2025 17:35

DeepFatFried · 02/02/2025 11:56

You could look on it as spending £10k to live for 6 months. That presumably includes all the food, many bills and leisure and extra spending they would be doing in 6 months.

Are they renting their house out while gone, or paying utilities and overheads at the same time?

6 months travelling is a completely different experience from a holiday.

No still paying mortgage and they said if they were going away for longer than 6 months then they would tent it out.

OP posts:
LynetteScavo · 02/02/2025 17:35

Also I would like to know whether people think it's worth spending all that for travel or would you rather spend it on furniture for your home or upgrading your kitchen or putting it towards buying a new car

If you already have function furniture and a kitchen and a car that works then I would spend money on travel. If I had no car it would be silly to jet off to Bali and then complain I couldn't get to work because I had no car.

If you have DC who have never seen the beach, do you pay for a weekend in Norfolk or buy a stair carpet? Do adults look back and remember that moment in their childhood eating fish and chips in the drizzle on the beach or how nice their mum's stair carpet was?

Everyone's priorities are different. When I had very little money (partly because we already had quite a relatively large bit mortgage for the time) I prioritised my DCs music and sports and extra tutoring. I have a colleague who prioritises clothes. Another friend prioritises travel and goes abroad one weekend each moneys but lives in a tiny flat when she could get a mortgage for a much larger house. I'm aware other people spend a lot on Christmas. Everyone has different priorities, but if you spend all of your money on hair and nails and cushions and never own a passport I personally think you've lived a bit of a shallow life. There is a lot of the world out there and I'm sad I don't earn enough to be able to see it all.

YeezysBeans · 02/02/2025 17:42

It's all relative as well though isn't it, it's not just priorities.

I'm a low income bracket. The absolute most I've ever spent on a holiday is 1400 and that was a BIG deal for me.

I'd absolutely love to be able to spend more but I have very little disposable income. Our holiday for this year is to a Haven park, and is about £250. I love to travel and wish we could spend more but we can't. 🤷 Spending 10/20k on travel seems like another world to me! Id only spend that much if I was rich, rich.

My kids don't care how much I spend luckily, and both love holidays in the UK just as much as abroad.

Original poster
PerkyOchrePeer · 02/02/2025 23:39

I want to go to Israel but because of the situation over there I can't go and I can't think of any other destination I would go to instead at the moment

OP posts:
Bjorkdidit · 03/02/2025 03:33

Well if you don't actually want to go on holiday, apart from somewhere that's not currently possible then what's the issue?

I can relate to that as I've always wanted to visit Chernobyl (professional interest) but I suspect that ship has sailed in my lifetime although I have plenty of other places I'd like to visit and there's getting away for the other benefits like a change of scene, relaxing in the sun, swimming in a warm sea and eating out each night etc.

But I'd still not give a shit about what 'friends' thought about how I decorated or furnished my home and would spend my money as I saw fit.

Original poster
PerkyOchrePeer · 03/02/2025 12:45

A few years ago my cooker packed up and at the time I didn't have the money to buy a new cooker and go on holiday so because I needed a new cooker I chose to cooker and some people I know spend all their money on their home putting in a marble kitchen building an extension and then when they've got all those things they've got no money left for a holiday but the way they look at it is that because they've built an extension and put in a marble kitchen it increases the value of their home dramatically so when they sell it they sell it for a huge profit

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hjfoau · 03/02/2025 12:48

@PerkyOchrePeer your thread and posts are very odd. What's your point? Some people can afford a holiday and a kitchen extension, some people can afford neither, others can afford only 1 and will choose based on their own priorities which are personal, there is no right or wrong answer.

Original poster
PerkyOchrePeer · 03/02/2025 12:50

A cousin of mine inherited a lot of money when his mum died and he used it to upgrade their Shabby kitchen and put new doors on all the rooms with brass handles and the house he lived in was part by part rent so he used the remainder of his inheritance to buy the rest of the house so now he owns the house instead of owning a portion of it and renting the rest. At the time I said to him you can take a luxury holiday and he said I would rather do up my house because I have three children and it's security for their future if I buy the rest of the house and upgrade it

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hjfoau · 03/02/2025 12:52

.......and.......?

Hancox432 · 03/02/2025 13:15

Holidays are high priority for us and would usually spend between 2-5 k a year on holidays with a big Orlando holiday every few years at about 10-12K. I get what others have said about maintaining their home to a high standard. However on your deathbed that fancy home isn't doing anything for you, but those family memories are what I am wanting to be holding onto before I go.

Each to their own though and I'll never judge.

Original poster
PerkyOchrePeer · 03/02/2025 15:49

Hancox432 · 03/02/2025 13:15

Holidays are high priority for us and would usually spend between 2-5 k a year on holidays with a big Orlando holiday every few years at about 10-12K. I get what others have said about maintaining their home to a high standard. However on your deathbed that fancy home isn't doing anything for you, but those family memories are what I am wanting to be holding onto before I go.

Each to their own though and I'll never judge.

have been nothing to leave me so when they passed away there was money to leave me. I think it's ok if you are single but when you have a family you put your family first and you provide for your family so you provide them with a secure home because these days is difficult to buy a home so if you can leave your family a home then there are always be set up. My friend's brother had quite a bit of put aside in a savings account for his children to help them buy their own home because it's difficult for children nowadays to get the deposit together to buy a home so he said when they want to buy a home of their own I can say here's the money for your deposits oh he said if they want to go to university rather than getting a student loan I can give them the money so that they won't have to get a student loan

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Original poster
PerkyOchrePeer · 03/02/2025 15:58

It is all very I am a strong believer in providing for your children helping them by their own homes helping them through University financially and if you use all your money on holidays you've got nothing to help your children with and it's all very well saying take the children abroad on the holiday they'll have memories but what about securing their future to stop them paying off a student University load for the next 20 or 30 years and then there so busy paying off their loan they can't say for a mortgage

OP posts:
Hayley1256 · 03/02/2025 16:02

PerkyOchrePeer · 03/02/2025 15:58

It is all very I am a strong believer in providing for your children helping them by their own homes helping them through University financially and if you use all your money on holidays you've got nothing to help your children with and it's all very well saying take the children abroad on the holiday they'll have memories but what about securing their future to stop them paying off a student University load for the next 20 or 30 years and then there so busy paying off their loan they can't say for a mortgage

I can do all those things for my DD. Your thread started around choosing new carpets or a holiday. I would always choose a holiday as she'll remember that and not the carpets. I'm fortunate that I can take her on holiday, give her a nice home and help her out in the future. If I couldn't do all those things I would choose a less expensive holiday/ way of living

iamnotalemon · 03/02/2025 16:04

@PerkyOchrePeer

I like to live in a well maintained home so any spare money I have I used to maintain my home so if I have a few thousand and my home needs to be decorated or I need new carpets I would use them on that because at the end of the day if you go on the holiday you will come back to thread bear carpets and a home that badly needs decorating all for the sake of wanting to go and see a new country I don't think so

That's up to you. I'd rather spend my money on travel and seeing the world.

Original poster
PerkyOchrePeer · 03/02/2025 16:34

I grew up in a poor family and all our furniture was second hand but our home was always spotless tidy and the second hand furniture was good quality and my parents were very house proud people. We never went to bored because my parents couldn't afford it so we went on day trips to the beach and my summer holidays were spent staying with my grandmother. One of our relatives offered to pay for us to go to Spain and my mum said no because she said we always pay our way we don't accept charity

OP posts:
HorrorFan81 · 03/02/2025 17:28

Honeslty what on earth does this have to do with anything? You can choose to spend your money on whatever you want, you don't have to do what your cousin does or spend money on your house because of judgy friends.

If it honestly makes you happier putting in a new carpet rather than visiting someplace new that's your business

HorrorFan81 · 03/02/2025 17:37

What do you want from this thread OP? You started off asking what people spend on holidays then you just keep posting about random things your family used to do and what they spent money on. It sounds like you were brought up to prioritise being 'house proud' rather than spending money on experiences and you've continued that way. Which is fine, but why post here?

Original poster
PerkyOchrePeer · 03/02/2025 17:39

Do you always book your holidays online or through a travel agent? For long Hall More costly holidays I feel happy going through a travel agents because they do it all for you even though it would be cheaper online and I have just enquired about another holiday long haul to my local travel agents and they gave me a quote of 3000 but online it would probably be 2000

OP posts:
Daisy03 · 03/02/2025 18:00

I feel this thread has taken a strange turn. I'm coming out of the end of cancer treatment which has given me a real shake up. I can never think of a time when I'd be happy spending cash on brass door handles over what travel gives me, spending time with family and seeing the world and different experiences. Of course compromises can be made and there can be cheaper holidays and cheaper house fittings.

Cynic17 · 03/02/2025 18:05

I would always put a holiday before new carpets! I guarantee that when I'm on my deathbed then I'll want to think about all the wonderful places I've visited. There's no way I'll want to reflect on my top notch "home decor" 😂 Life is for living, so I've always chosen to live it and see the world.

Kangarude · 03/02/2025 18:11

The OP doesn’t seem overly interested in replying to posters, but doesn’t mind just talking about her experiences. Slightly weird