Travel influencer Nicole shares finance tips based on how her family saves up to travel abroad up to five times a year – here’s everything you need to know
A travel influencer called Nicole took to social media to explain how she’s able to afford up to five yearly international trips with her family, while “not having a lot of money”.
The 28-year-old mum-of-two, from Manchester, manages a TikTok account with more than 104,000 followers. She shares the family’s adventures abroad – as well as their days living in Yorkshire, reviewing destinations and advertising holiday deals.
In a recent clip, captioned “How do we afford to go abroad three to five times a year?”, she outlines the four-piece’s financial adjustments in order to afford the yearly vacations.
“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.”