CHEAPER THAN MANY ALTERNATIVES: A motorhome holiday
A motorhome can seem like a large outlay and perhaps hard to justify for some.
However, you can look ahead a few years and see that your investment could lead to major savings.
Here we look at how buying a motorhome can make sound financial sense.
According to research on the Evolution Money website, the average cost of a two-week holiday for a family of four is around £4,700 – and that’s without taking spending money for food, gifts and the like into account.
Of course it’s possible to spend less than that for a family holiday, but that is the average as people pay inflated fees to travel in the school holidays.
Allowing for even a tiny rate of inflation, that means that 10 years’ worth of holidays come to around £50,000 for your typical family of four – and again that’s without eating out even factored in.
With a package holiday or similar, there are other expenses too. Most meals will come at a premium price, whether it’s a café near the beach, or just grabbing a bite in town.
Cold drinks, ice creams and the like will also come at those resort prices. For a family of four, you can be looking at hundreds of pounds every week of holiday added on to that £50,000 figure.
The costs are stacking up, but because they come in dribs and drabs you perhaps don’t notice them in the same way you would when writing a cheque for a motorhome.
The above is based on one holiday a year, often a trip to Europe for a bit of sun.
But a lot of families also want a few days at Easter or autumn, maybe a trip to the Lake District, or unwinding at somewhere like Centre Parcs.
These extra trips add another four-figure sum to your total holiday costs, and of course there are no economies of scale.
If you want three breaks in the year you don’t get a discount, each one comes at the premium travel agency price, school holiday inflation added in too of course.
A further recent consideration is Brexit – any major changes to the UK economy are sure to have an effect on the exchange rate. If the exchange rate against the Euro changes dramatically, every aspect of a holiday to Europe could easily become 10 or 20% more expensive – that’s the hotel, the food, the gifts. Everything!
Based on the figures above, which are averages from an independent survey, it is clear that 10 years’ worth of holidays – especially for families with children – are going to cost in the tens of thousands and can easily approach £100,000 when you factor in short breaks and spending money.
Some motorhomes cost in excess of £100,000; others can be picked up second hand for under £20,000. A middle ground might be a £40,000 second hand motorhome, one a few years old but in great condition and well kitted out.
This motorhome can be used for short breaks, vastly reducing the cost of these, but also for summer holidays. Of course, summer holidays won’t suddenly become freebies, but £5,000 per year can easily become £1,000.
Costs on food and drinks tumble too – you have a well-stocked fridge and kitchen on hand, yes enjoy some meals out but those expensive trips to cafes for a basic lunch can be avoided. That’s £20 saved a time.
It is not unreasonable to expect a figure in excess of £60,000 or £70,000 from package holidays and short breaks to tumble to £10,000 or £15,000.
At the end of a decade, you can easily have saved that initial £40,000 outlay – and have an asset too – a motorhome still worth around £20,000.
Of course, exact figures will depend greatly on the holidays you plan to take and just how many breaks you want – though the savings with motorhomes will only grow the more you utilise the vehicle.
The point is though that there is a cost to holidays that cannot be avoided, by putting more of the costs upfront with a motorhome there is the potential to make great savings in the longer run.
Emm-Bee is a leading UK family-run motorhome dealership based in Bury, Greater Manchester.
As well as stocking the latest models from leading makes such as Burstner, Chausson, Bailey and Laika, we also have an unrivalled stock of used motorhomes for sale.
We pride ourselves on customer satisfaction and offering unmatched levels of service – we have been in business for 25 years and have flourished on word-of-mouth recommendations.
Please have a look round the site to check our range of used motorhomes and do get in touch with any queries, or just to pick our brains.
