How do you save/ budget for holidays

holidaysforme

PasturesNew wrote: »

I don't have holidays, they're just something I've never been able to afford - and also have nobody to go with, so it's never been any sort of priority for me.

I've no idea even how much a holiday might cost, but I'd probably be looking at £400 for a week I guess.... so, if I wanted a holiday of that much I'd just consciously not spend money on other stuff until there was enough in my current account - then I'd book/pay for it.

Seems really sensible to me. I have a fiend though who never ever goes on holiday. She didn't have a passport till last year when she turned 50!!
She prefers day trips and a very occasional over nighter. She can afford to holiday but prefers her own bed. Horses for courses..

holidaysforme

jackieblack wrote: »

I try and save a certain amount every month and also add anything extra when I can.
I work in a school so am limited to travelling during school holidays, which means that it inevitably costs more than it would if I could travel at 'off peak' times and consequently I can't afford to travel as frequently as I would like, but travelling is important to me and what keeps me going, so I 'suck it up' and enjoy spending time researching and planning my trips to get good deals wherever possible.
I always have at least two or three future trips in mind and semi-planned for the short, medium and long term, but since I'm now a solo traveller, these trips are a bit different to the kind we planned and took when we were travelling as a family.
I don't buy lots of 'stuff' and live quite frugally, but probably spend 'more than the average' on my holidays (judging only by what I've heard thers say they spend). As a % of my income, it's a significant amount, exceeded only by the amount I pay for my mortgage.

Next to our morgtgage our highest spend is on holidays.:D We only have one car, and no expensive sky packages or the like. DH does all the DIY, and we always look for best deals on everything we buy.


DD is in year 10 so we have a few years before we can go away out of school holidays.
Like you, I always have a couple of trips planned or semi planned as well. Keeps me going.
Where are you off to next? I'm going to Copenhagen with friends in May.

holidaysforme

Moto2 wrote: »

We book a holiday when and if we have a good month with a lump of cash available at the end of it. We're not retired yet but don't have to worry about things like mortgages.
It usually works out that we get away at least 3 times and sometimes 5 each year. I'm able to book leave upto 2 years in advance so that helps with the logistics a bit.
We've currently got 3 trips booked and paid for to take us up to Christmas

Great that you can book leave so far in advance. I guess that means you are able to take advantage of the best deals. We also have three trips booked bring us up to Christmas. I'm thinking about next year already lol..

getmore4less

Being able to book ahead is not the only way to get deals, there are always late or surprise deals that crop up.

actualy booking year+ in advance can block dates so you miss offers.

the trick is to always be looking and be relatively flexible on where you will go.

the reality is as long as you have a reasonable long list of places they can happen in any order.

If you make holidays the top priority then every bit of cash goes in that pot and you then think more about any spending on other stuff.

Moto2

holidaysforme wrote: »

Great that you can book leave so far in advance. I guess that means you are able to take advantage of the best deals. We also have three trips booked bring us up to Christmas. I'm thinking about next year already lol..

We don't generally look for 'deals'
We tend to try and pick up an Easyjet or Ryanair flight as they're released and work from there, once we have the flights we book parking and start looking at where we want to stay etc.
I don't recall the last package we booked.

Good to see you're getting the hols in

holidaysforme

Moto2 wrote: »

We don't generally look for 'deals'
We tend to try and pick up an Easyjet or Ryanair flight as they're released and work from there, once we have the flights we book parking and start looking at where we want to stay etc.
I don't recall the last package we booked.

Good to see you're getting the hols in

I suppose I meant deals in the sense of being able to book in advance with flights etc, rather than package holidays. We too buy flights and then work from there. The last package holiday we booked was 2009.

holidaysforme

getmore4less wrote: »

Being able to book ahead is not the only way to get deals, there are always late or surprise deals that crop up.

actualy booking year+ in advance can block dates so you miss offers.

the trick is to always be looking and be relatively flexible on where you will go.

the reality is as long as you have a reasonable long list of places they can happen in any order.

If you make holidays the top priority then every bit of cash goes in that pot and you then think more about any spending on other stuff.

We have to take all our holidays in schol hols, so unfortunately have no Room for flexibility. Our DD will be sitting GCSE's next year so we will be able to go away anytime from end of June when she finishes, rather than be stuck with peak holiday prices for July and August. That will be the first time we have been able to do this in 10 years:T

peachyprice

holidaysforme wrote: »

Next to our morgtgage our highest spend is on holidays.:D We only have one car, and no expensive sky packages or the like. DH does all the DIY, and we always look for best deals on everything we buy.


DD is in year 10 so we have a few years before we can go away out of school holidays.
Like you, I always have a couple of trips planned or semi planned as well. Keeps me going.
Where are you off to next? I'm going to Copenhagen with friends in May.

Don't forget the magic weeks at the end of year 11! Official 'leaving' date next year is 30th June (it's always the last Friday in June), so we have a good 3 weeks to get a holiday in before the school holidays really kick in!

sandsy

holidaysforme wrote: »

Do you have an annual budget, or a seperate account just for holidays where you allocate a certain amount every month.?

Separate account - standing order in place to send money to it every month. Also add any bonus I might get.

With two secondary school age children, we're pretty much confined to school holidays. I book well in advance (close to a year mostly) for the best prices. Also use Avios for to help fund the odd trip, and use a BA-linked Amex card to build up free companion vouchers for free flights.

We're away 4 times this year: went to Dubai for a week at February half-term, heading to Amsterdam for a citybreak at Easter, will be spending two weeks in a gite in southern France in the summer and away for 2 weeks in October half term (yes, the kids get 2 weeks off) visiting New York and the Caribbean.

Got cheap flights on all but France using Avios, an Amex companion voucher and other frequent flyer points.

Last year was 2 weeks in French gites, 2 weeks in South Africa and a long weekend at Center Parcs, less than an hour from home.

I prefer more holidays to less holidays, so prepared to do self catering breaks not too far away, to help fund more exotic trips.

Researching holidays is my hobby Currently thinking about next Easter since this year is all sorted.

holidaysforme

peachyprice wrote: »

Don't forget the magic weeks at the end of year 11! Official 'leaving' date next year is 30th June (it's always the last Friday in June), so we have a good 3 weeks to get a holiday in before the school holidays really kick in!

Yup.::j See post above. We're hoping to go away as soon as exams are finished. We wanted to go to Greece,-
Athens, and then one of the islands, but not sure now if that's such a great idea with everything that's happening.
Might have to rethink that one..