Manchester-born travel influencer Nicole (@nicoletravelandlife) went to social media to come clean about how she is able to afford up to five yearly trips with her working-class family.
The school business manager doubles as a content creator, managing a TikTok account with over 104,000 followers, where she shares the family’s international adventures as well as their days living in Yorkshire, reviews destinations and even advertises holiday deals.
In the recent “How do we afford to go abroad 3 to 5 times a year?” video, she outlines the financial accommodations the group makes in order to afford the frequent vacations.
“I think some people might presume we’ve got a lot of money, which we don’t. So I just thought I’d go through some of the ways we are able to afford to go abroad three to five times a year,” she explains, describing their household as a dual-income family consisting of two adults and two children.
Her first tips are about how she feeds the family: “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.” She goes on: “We do our weekly food shop at Lidl, spending about £60 to £80 pounds a week.”
Next, she opens up about some budget-friendly lifestyle choices: “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.”
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“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,” she advises. “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.”
The 28-year-old then reveals what local family activities look like for her two kids – 11-year old Lucas and toddler Harriet. “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,” she adds.
“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 concludes: “So, I guess really we just prioritise travel over anything else.”