Hurrah! The second May bank holiday is nearly here. For many the weekend promises a three day (or longer) escape from the day-to-day stresses of the office, and the chance to put hard-working feet up in a pleasant corner of the UK, or possibly somewhere more exotic. But is going away really going to be that much fun?
Leaving to one side the mixed weather – the BBC currently forecasts a delightful mixture of heavy showers and cloud for the UK this weekend – there are plenty of other reasons to feel quietly smug if you have nothing organised and plan to spend the bank holiday at home.
First off, the estimated 18 million cars that will pack our roads at some point over the weekend all need petrol – and that’s not cheap any more. With oil prices sitting at well over $130 per barrel, the average price of a litre of unleaded fuel has risen to 113.67p. And things are no better for anyone who bought a diesel car hoping for savings on their fuel bill – it now costs an average of 125.95p, having risen last month by 6%, the second largest amount since 2000.
For anyone thinking of abandoning these shores and jetting off, the news isn’t good either. Two major US airlines recently warned that passengers will have to pay more for fewer flights if they are all to stay in business, and that’s on the back of many routes seeing fare increases of up to 10% in just the last 12 months.
OK, so how about hopping over to the continent? Not so easy either. Thanks to union strike action over President Sarkozy’s pension reform plans, only one in two trains are running, and union officials have blockaded the 4 key oil depots near the port of Marseille, resulting in rumours of petrol running out at forecourts across chunks of southern France. And even if you do eventually make it to your favourite gite, the strong euro now puts a pretty serious dent in the wallet for anyone planning to spend sterling (or, even worse, US dollars). As a result, according to the EU statistics office, EU exports are down 2.3% this month, hardly surprising given that a pound only buys €1.25 today, having dropped 1% just on Wednesday following strong business sentiment data from Germany, contributing to a fall of nearly 10% since Christmas.
Finally, without wanting to sound glum, we increasingly just can’t afford to be splashing money around on fancy weekend breaks – as Transact, a national forum that represents more than 1,000 debt management organisations reported this week, it’s now the middle class that’s having its pips squeaked by rising household bills, increasingly expensive mortgages and mounting fears about job security. No wonder, as the latest YouGov poll revealed, 44% of us are reigning in our spending. What better place to start than avoiding the stress of trying to get away on one of the busiest weekends of the year?