I save £80 a month off my wage that goes in holiday or emergency fund,also do the loose change jar and save forth road/rail bridge pound coins for some reason.

Myself and my wife don't drink apart from when we do go away so with both of us working and having decent jobs usually put around £300 a month away. Plus the credit cards do come in handy sometimes.... it's just the bills that don't

We have another Binge Drinker in our midst.

I also save my £2 coins all year. However this is my airport spends. I usually have enough for the taxi, breakfast a couple of drinks, and a nice bottle of perfume and aftershave. This year I even had a pair of sandals and a handbag - great!!. From now until the summer I will also be cutting back on our Saturday nights out.

Don't save in a structured way for hols. But we do what you do Helen and cut back on Sat nights out as ours are normally meals out for 4 so cost quite a bit. Somehow they seem more important during the winter in the run up till Xmas.

After Xmas it serves a duel purpose of saving and also (hopefully) helps with the weight problems, its added to in the first place.
Think I might start doing the coin thing everyone else talks about.

Doe

The coin thing is an amazing way to do it ... i'm one of those people who continually used notes, and i amassed a helluva lot of money one year by saving the change!!

My husband has jar he puts all his loose change in!

I have my husbands jar to get the change out of

Comes in very handy for kids bus fare and after school club.

As for holidays, deposit is normally on the CC. Aim to pay off the rest abit every month but never do.
Always something else to spend money on so end up with a bit of a panic 10 wks before hols!

For spending money the last couple of years I had a loan from Credit Union and pay off so much a month over the next year.

I also save change in a jar and it is amazing how it can add up, that tends to pay for the treats while on hols. The company I work for has a sharesave scheme and I have one that matures every year around June time. This is what has paid the bulk of my holidays and this year my Husband's sharesave will mature about the same time so that's this years hol and spending money sorted. Am finding that as the holidays get more expensive every year so the amount I pay into my sharesave has had to increase but it's still a good way of paying for your holiday. Occasionally I have received a wee windfall because the share price has increased quite abit which is an added bonus.

we have a bank account for special things - we might use it to help out at Christmas or go out to dinner or buy concert tickets, but after easter it's all saved up for our holiday. i also do the change in a jar thing, it's surprising how much it adds up to.

we book as far in advance as possible, 12 months for long haul if we can, work out a budget based on how much we can pay off each month until the final balance is due and then get it booked and start paying, we could never save up for a holiday that wasn't already firmly booked...those mean and threatening terms and conditions regarding loss of deposit and paying up the balance on time are what keep me going and motivated...otherwise i would fritter away the money on yet more frocks that i'll never wear every pay-day, hooray for the evil T's& C's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have to book well in advance (9 months +) due to g/fs work. Once we've got the holidays booked we work out how much needs saving each month and g/f transfers her money to me, i leave it all in my account cos it offsets the mortgage and then I pay for all the deposits/balance payment and sort out the spends for both of us. I just have to really sensible and know how much of my bank balance is allocated!!!!!

We use Tesco Vouchers! Got 2 hols booked this year both courtesy of Tesco! The first is to Turkey which was half paid for with vouchers, the second is to center parcs in France all paid for in Tesco vouchers! Now looking at where to go in 2009 and saving vouchers like mad! We also do the loose change in a jar thing and my mother saves all her £2 coins for the kids' spending money!

twinkle again !

we have quite a few "breaks" throughout the yr

smaller / cheapy ones eg Butlins or SUN £9.50 3 night breaks

medium sized lol eg week to France paid with Tesco clubcard deals
hoping to have enough to book a holiday for 6, each August courtesy of Mr T
then big holidays ( every 2 yrs ) eg we have booked a caribbean cruise for feb 2009 ,which we pay using hubbys bonuses from work,we booked well early so just pay off a bit each month or so
Florida will be our next biggie hopefully
we prefer to have lots of smaller holidays / breaks ,gives us something to look forward to each school holiday,rather than having to wait a yr ,as we would all hate that !