How do you afford such great holidays?

se999

Hi,

For a mega cheap holiday have you thought of house exchanging with relatives or friends from a different area!

We were very tight on cash when our boys were about that age, and swapped for a week with relatives. The money we saved meant that we could afford to do the treaty things we normally couldn't afford like go to the theme parks and other attractions and activities. Most areas are now geared up with so many things to see and do.

Both sides enjoyed the experience, as when visiting normally we'd visited the people not the place.

trademark

what a strange question .... sorry but i just dont see your confusion ,...

ive just come back from the carribean ..... how did i afford it ? i just worked hard at school and got a decent job ....

yes circumstance plays a part and im sure your children enjoy your holidays as much as my children enjoy ours .... but i really dont see how you can become confused when you see posters here enjoying nice holidays .

remember these boards are not for the poor or the rich ...but for anyone wishing to pay sensible prices

i hope i have not misread your post , but even with all the money saving tips in the world a person just isnt going to get a 5 grand holiday for a few hundred quid .

swizzlebabe

trademark, i`m not asking for something for nothing, just a few tip`s.

I did work hard at school and got a good job, but left that good job to be a stay at home mum. My children do not have everything they want, flash clothes or holidays. But they already know to some extent the value of money, and have thier mum at home, and home cooked food on the table.

I have friends who continued to work after having children, they go abroad on hol`s, eat ready meals, and have lots of nice clothes and toys.Their parents are in debt, they buy their children things to make up for not being there.

I would like a holiday, my hubbie works long hours, so I can stay at home. But being a full time mum is hard work.

tightgit_2

trademark wrote:

what a strange question .... sorry but i just dont see your confusion ,...

ive just come back from the carribean ..... how did i afford it ? i just worked hard at school and got a decent job ....

yes circumstance plays a part and im sure your children enjoy your holidays as much as my children enjoy ours .... but i really dont see how you can become confused when you see posters here enjoying nice holidays .

remember these boards are not for the poor or the rich ...but for anyone wishing to pay sensible prices

i hope i have not misread your post , but even with all the money saving tips in the world a person just isnt going to get a 5 grand holiday for a few hundred quid .

What an extremely rude response to a perfectly reasonable question. :mad:

Most of the people I know who are rich are rich because of pure luck and good fortune, not because they have worked hard for it. Most people work hard, but some are luckier than others.

Swizzlebabe was only asking for advice and has been given some very good tips by people.

From my experience it is always the people who drone on about how hard they have worked, that have worked the least!!!

trademark

tight git ... i dont think it was a rude response at all .. i pointed out that i wasnt sure about the question .

the question was : You all seem to be going to really cool places, how do you finance it?

that isnt asking for advice and it implied confusion as to why readers of this board are able to go on holidays abroad as if to read this board you must first be poor .

i just gave a simple answer ..... i finance my holidays through hard work ... its fine if you choose not to believe that ... and why start a debate about rich people ? define rich ... i dont feel i fit into that category if thats what you are implying .

swizzlebabe ..... i hope you didnt take offence , it wasnt intended , we have teenage children now and we holiday abroad ... but that doesnt mean we have ever been absent parents , my wife didnt return to work until both children started school , as im sure you will soon be able to do .

kazd

One thing I have noticed is that several have mentioned the magic number (4). Everything is geared for a family of 4, for those of us who had one too many glasses of wine and now have 3 children it becomes a whole new ball game. Despite trying to book a year in advance I was still coming up with limited options that didn't involve the children being in separate rooms (which I could cope with if connected) but these were not guaranteed and could even be at the other end of the corridor. Sorry but even I who is not by any stretch an earth mother could not do that especially as I have a five year old who still occassionally joins us in the middle of the night. Can you imagine him letting himself out into a hotel corridor in the middle of the night.

So our holiday is in the middle of the school hols and is costing about £6k before spending money.

trademark

kazd ... your correct ... very unfair isnt it , our children are 15 and 14 and need their own space so we book them their own room , but often we have to pay adult prices for this and lose the child discount usually offered for children .

so its not always easy for a family of 4 let alone 5 ....

just another point ... the school holidays have changed in our area , during our last holiday it looked as though the company hadnt switched onto this change yet ... i wonder how many have ,,,, might be worth a look .

tightgit_2

trademark wrote:

the question was : You all seem to be going to really cool places, how do you finance it?

that isnt asking for advice and it implied confusion as to why readers of this board are able to go on holidays abroad as if to read this board you must first be poor .

i just gave a simple answer ..... i finance my holidays through hard work ... g .

we have teenage children now and we holiday abroad ... .

Swizzlebabe was asking how we financed it, as you say, so obviously she was asking for advice. I don't think she implied that to read this board you must be poor at all.

There are plenty of people that work hard, but they still can't afford a holiday. But by saying it's because you worked hard at school and got a good job and worked hard for it, You were implying that people who couldn't afford a holiday did not. But as you say it is more due to the fact that you are both able to work now.

You are right though, you don't have to be rich to go to the carribean, I accept that.

trademark

tight git ...... the thread started ... How do you afford such great holidays ? ...

looking at my answer it now appears to be a touch self complimentary ... that wasnt intended at all and i hope swizzlebabe accepts that .

in my defence though part of the reason i had to work hard at school was because to me it was at times difficult , i did also say that circumstance usually plays its part ... as it has done with my wife and swizzlebabe , i think if i were to believe that not having a job or having a low paid job was a reflection of how a person progressed through school would cause some deserved backlash from posters here and from my wife .....however i do not believe this to be true .

kazd

We have had our flights booked since last July and our villa booked since the beg of December. It seems the only way is to go self catering, hotels are not really an option for us and in all truthfulness would probably not be our first choice. We like to have the freedom to eat in or eat out and the space you get with a villa. I do realise however, that we are very lucky and that my part time work just pays for nice things like holidays etc. Still, does not stop it being expensive though.