Travelling can quickly become expensive, but with a little planning, travel dreams can easily come true. Unfortunately, for a fifth of Brits, budgeting for their holiday is not something that comes naturally. That’s the conclusion of a new international survey that travel site momondo.co.uk conducted among 29,000 people globally, with 1,013 of respondents being Brits.
Interestingly, only 50% of Brits budget for the total amount they can spend both on the booking phase and during their holiday, while 14% of Brits just make a budget for transport to and from the destination (e.g. plane or train tickets) and 10% decide on a budget for accommodation.
Brits are far from the worst offenders though. The Germans, the Swiss and the Scandinavians lead the pack, according to statistics, with a third of the population not budgeting for their holidays.
Young Brits nifty at being thrifty
To be able to afford a holiday, 43% of Brits stated they set money aside regularly to be spent on a holiday.
And 10% sell some of their things, 14% pay in installments and 13% save up by making regular contributions to a fund shared with friends or family.
Interestingly, 18 and 22 year-olds come out as the most responsible, with 19% and 23% respectively taking an extra job or saving in a fund shared with friends and family, in order to afford their travels.
How we prefer to count costs
In terms of what Brits prefer to save money on whilst on holiday, 27% stated they like to save on plane tickets.
A further 26% choose to make savings on accommodation, 14% on transfers to the destination, 24% save money on evenings out and 23% choose cheaper options for meals and snacks during the holiday.
So, to encourage Brits to get saving to enjoy a dream holiday, here are some money-saving flight tips
- Book your trip 53 days in advance to get the cheapest tickets – and you can achieve average savings of 26%.
- Tickets are generally most expensive on the day of departure.
- Evening departures between the hours of 6pm and 12am typically offer the cheapest fares.
- It is usually more expensive to fly in the morning and midday, before 3pm.
- A Tuesday is generally the cheapest day to fly.
- Saturday is routinely the most expensive day of the week to fly
Travellers can explore the six factors that affect flight fares with momondo’s free money-saving tool Flight Insight, available on more than 10,000 routes worldwide.
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28 comments
I’ve booked our flights for a Tuesday to Tuesday this year to save. Daft question – is the 53 days thing actually 53 days or at at least 53 days?
Hi Kerrie – well done for going for the Tuesday flight – I expect you might have saved money already! The 53 day rule was the best average day before a flight to save money (from the survey), but as a rule of thumb, the longer you near the flight date, the higher the prices (usually). Hope this helps!
These are some really fantastic tips! Even though I travel a fair bit I didn’t know about the 53 days in advance thing!
Laura x
You can use that one now Laura! 🙂
Great tips, interesting about how many days before to get the cheapest and on a Tuesday. Thanks!
Pleasure Steph! 🙂
Great tips! We’re now going to look to travel on Tuesdays in the evening to save costs x
Great! Let me know how you get on and if the tips worked!
There are some fantastic tips here. My other half won’t go away outside of the UK because he reckons it’s too expensive. I’m sending him the link right now!!
Louise x
Oh how funny…yes! You show him! Good luck 😉
When we have flown in the past, not for a few years now, we’ve also found Tuesday to be a cheaper day to fly! Some great tips here!
Thanks Katy – great that you spotted Tuesday is a great day for cheaper fares!
This was a really interesting read! I love a bit of planning lol so I like to plan our holiday out in detail including the cost of the holiday, spending money, travel costs etc although we only holiday in the UK so far so not to much to worry about in terms of travel expenses etc!
Staycations are great Jess – and can be just as great (if not better) than holidays abroad – thanks for this and glad you found it interesting!
I tend to pay for holidays in installments although we are saving for a dream holiday to florida at the moment
Ah it will be sooooo worth it Kara – you’ll love it!
We travel a lot to Denmark to see friends and family and I’ll definitely need to be better at planning so we can save more on airfare x
If you stay in Denmark a lot then you might want to read this post – about finding cheap accommodation in Denmark – http://www.homeandhorizon.com/cheap-but-great-places-to-stay-in-denmark/ . Mind you, if you can stay with friends it would be even better!
I like the idea of booking flights 53 days in advance to get a 26% saving, especially as I am wanting to travel more this year as well! I had no idea that Tuesday was the cheapest day to fly either! x
You learn something new every day don’t you? Great to hear you’ll be doing more travelling Ana!
Oh what fab tips! I didnt know that about booking 53 days before, that’s so helpful!
Thanks Laura – glad you found it useful!
We do save for our holidays but don’t like to limit ourselves so these money saving tips are going to be so handy! I’m hoping to get something booked in soon!
Best of luck Tori – you and me both!
I am bad at saving for a holiday, I am fortunate to be able to plan a trip from my salary without having to save for 2018 it will be different
That’s great that you’ve been keeping a check on the finances to be able to afford a holiday straight from your salary. Sadly most of mine goes on housekeeping updates – and the kids!
Some fantastic tips here. Anything you can do to save money for your holiday is right up my street!
Thanks Jon – glad you found it helpful.