Budgeting on holiday

Murtle

I know this is a "how long is a piece of string" questions but hopefully it will get varied responses so I can get an idea.I have never budgeted for a holiday successfully, I have the money before I go and spend whatever whilst I'm away. This year I'd like to have some stricter control over this so was wonsering how others budget for the day to day costs for their holiday. We are staying in a self-catering appartment this year, normally we camp so it just feel all different this year! Oh yes, we'll be in France!Any ideas greatly appreciated!ThanksMurtlexx

cheekymole

Do you take all the money with you Murtle or do you take it out of cashpoints while you are there? (With a Nationwide card of course)

If you take it all with you the divide what you have into the amount of days you are there and then remove say 5 euros from each pile. Put all the 5 euros into a seperate pile for emergencies or use it on the last day to treat yourselves.

I would say that in France 10-15 euros a day for gorceries would be plenty and that would even include a cheap bottle of plonk.
Depending oon what you have planned, do you need petrol, admisson fees etc. then you will need to budget for those too.

Whereabouts are you going in France, can you find things to do on the net before you go and see how much things will cost?

black-saturn

I usually budget for £50 per day. I cant see the point of going on holiday and scraping and saving. I go on holiday to enjoy myself.

Anne_Marie_2

Black-Saturn we do exactly the same as you, and funny enough same amount £50. Usually we will cash say £200 into currency, divide by 4, for 4 days worth of spending money - high tech maths lesson!:rotfl:
If we don't spend the £50, we stick the leftovers aside daily. We rarely spend the full amount, and we eat out all the time, as no cooking on holiday either - unless to cut the odd crusty bread, cheese, tomato, fruit - okay, will put the kettle on for coffee, only cos I am an addict, otherwise probably wouldn't even do that.
We always have extra dosh at the end of the holiday for stocking up on anything we want to bring back, and if we don't need to spend it, we don't - unless to get rid of those last few foreign coins - bag of sweets or coffee at the airport kind of thing.
We do allow extra if we know that we will want to hire a car, and check out car hire prices before we go to give an idea of how much extra we should take, or allow in the budget for (as will be using Nationwide card this year).
We tend not to go on trips arranged through the tour rep. Generally find them more expensive than booking locally, or using local transport/car hire to rake about. Isn't just the expense, if you do it on your own, you can eat where you like, have more time looking at things that interest you etc - think we have only done 3 organized trips in 20 odd years, and that was in countries where the driving was truly scary - or particularily long drive in one case.

Further would like to point out that £50 is for 2 of us, not each. We have stuck at £50 for years when we took DD on holiday with us. We always managed fine, but it was dearer in reality years ago as we were always having to buy ice-cream, lollies, juice galore, and then all the very useful beach toys and other such junk that kids find irresistable! Wonder how long we can get away with £50, we must be due for a re-think in another 10 years or so!

Murtle

We're going to watch the cycling!!!I'm going to try for £50 per day and see how it goes, thanks for the advice. At least it gives me an idea on how much to take as I think the heat has fried my brain and I can't work it out anymore!!!:)

nearlyrich

We don't really budget on holiday we don't go crazy but we eat what we want etc and have drinks, ice creams as and when. Must admit it's cheaper without the children too.