A woman who goes on holiday with her family up to five times a year has revealed how she manages it while still keeping on top of her finances.
Nicole, a 28-year-old mum-of-two from Manchester, regularly shares travel advice to her TikTok account – which now boasts more than 104,000 followers. She also posts updates about her family’s life in Yorkshire as well as reviews of destinations she has visited.
She captioned one of her more recent clips: “How do we afford to go abroad three to five times a year?” before describing the adjustments her family-of-four make in order to be able to jet off frequently.
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“I think some people might presume that we’ve got a lot of money, which we don’t. So I just thought I’d go through some of the ways that we are able to afford to go abroad three to five times a year”, she starts, providing the context that they are a dual-income family consisting of two adults and two children.
Her first two tips are food-related. She said: “We don’t often go for meals out, because a meal out for us can cost us £100 to £150. We only eat out on very special occasions, because we would rather put that money in a holiday fund.”
Instead, the family opts to eat at home. She goes on: “We do our weekly food shop at Lidl, spending about £60 to £80 pounds a week.”
Next, Nicole moves on to some of their lifestyle choices. She said: “We don’t finance cars. I drive a £200 car, as I’d much rather be going on holiday than paying £300 to £400 a month on a car. And we don’t buy expensive clothes. I rarely buy clothes, and if I do I buy one, it’s probably from the supermarket.
“Don’t buy coffees everyday. If I need a drink I’ll just go home and get one. I’d actually rather die of thirst than pay, like, £6 for a drink. Don’t often buy lunches at work. I either take food from home – who am I kidding, I don’t take food from home, I just starve at work – or come home and get something for my lunch.”
Nicole, who works in school business management, then explains what local family activities look like for her two children – 11-year old Lucas and toddler Harriet. She added: “We don’t do many of the massive kids’ days out. We do free activities, like go on a family walk or go somewhere, like swimming.
“Don’t get me wrong: We do, obviously, take the kids out, but going to a massive, like, Stockheld Park kind of place costs £30 a ticket, so we don’t do very often. We put all this money that we would spend on that into the holiday pot.”
Nicole concluded by giving one tip to fellow parents with wanderlust. She added: “So, I guess really we just prioritise travel over anything else.”