sal_angel2

Hey, so im trying to sort out a budget for my month or longer travel around europe. I am thinking £10.00 a day on food and drinks, maybe more on days when I am drinking and visiting bars and maybe less some days. but I really don't have any idea, I am mainly visiting France, so if anyone has any food and drink budgets lets me know.

jamikins

£10 is about €11

That is a very low budget to eat on in larger cities, certainly Paris. You wouldnt be able to eat in any sit down restaurants at all.

From a bakery, croissants for breakfast will run you about €2, coke or other drinks like it will cost +€1.50 and from €3-5 in a sit down restaurant. Wine is generally cheaper.

You could go to fruit stands, markets, and grocery stores and eat in your hotel room I suppose, but even then I doubt €11 will get you throug a day.

What expectations do you have for eating? Do you want to eat in your room or in a park, sit down in cafes?

Gretchen

I'm not sure he can eat adequately at all on that budget. ONLY if buying in a market--even a loaf of bread might be 2E. Cheese? water? 3meals?

anyegr

If you are staying in places where you can cook and store food it may be possible. You can live on noodles and other really cheap stuff for a few weeks without dying from it.

If you have to eat at cafes or restaurants you will have trouble. Maybe if breakfast was included in the hotel price and you ate a lot then and skipped lunch.

sal_angel2

My aim is to stay in hostels and i hav heard that many include a kitchenette, so i would use these as much as i could.

i will be staying in hotels occasionally and treat myself to a sit down meal, which im obviously preparing to pay more for.

i am starting in Paris with a friend and not worrying about a budget for those few days. Its more for the rest of the trip to set myself a limit tht i can stick to, occasionally hav left over and occasionally go over.

what do you think would a suitable budget be?

IM not looking for expense, cheap and cheerful is good to me, occasional visits to the supermarket or take outs.

i don't tend to eat breakfast, dinner is usually something small, i like to snack and hav a holy meal for tea �� i don't really drink much either, probably a coffee in the morning and as and when in thirsty, if that helps lol.

nytraveler

I can't imagine that you can even begin to eat for that. Granted I travel at a completely different budget. But if you want to even have an ice cream or any kind of drink in a bar - that will blow your budget for the day.

Just one question - do you pay for your food currently? And how much dos it cost to eat - even eating food you cook at home most of the time.

If you are not currently paying for all of your own food (as I suspect) talk to whoever is paying and find out how much it costs.

sal_angel2

I have purchased food for the week for 3 people before on £30.00 only having to buy extra salad, fruit, milk and bread.

I am starting to think £20.00 a day may be a better budget?

Christina

You could eat on that if you only bought stuff in a supermarket and cooked it and never had any snacks or drinks in a cafe or anywhere, and don't eat breakfast. Let's assume you have some water bottle you want to carry around and fill it up with tap water at your hostel, or maybe even bought one drink in a supermarket (water or something), that could be one euro. YOu could easily only spend a couple euros on eating if you cook noodles or rice or something in your hostel. Bread prices in France are regulated, I think a baguette costs less than 2 euro. The problem is anything you put on it or with it that is protein is expensive (cheese or meat).

YOu couldn't really eat in any restaurant for that, at least not most. There are actually some really cheap places in Paris (don't expect anything great) where you could get a meal maybe for 10 euro, but that would be your entire daily budget. Here's a real cheap place in the 15th arr, I think you could get some sort of meal there for 10 euro http://www.lesamisdelapero.fr/paris/...de-la-fidelite

There are other cheap places, not super great food and not in the central areas, such as in Chinatown (eg http://www.timeout.fr/paris/en/resta...mmit-huong-lan ). Eating the prix fixe lunch will get you more than eating dinner out.

So you could conceivably survive on that amount, but you wouldn't be able to buy any snacks or drinks, and couldn't have much protein.

Pvoyageuse

"Bread prices in France are regulated,"

They were deregulated in 1978.

ira

Hi Sal,

Figuring that you will buy instant coffee, rolls, lunch meat, etc and eat in, 20GBP will be fine.

Monoprix is a supermarket with a good food department.

>... maybe more on days when I am drinking and visiting bars ...<
Depends on what and how much you drink.
Spirits are very expensive.

Enjoy your visit.

kybourbon

I don't think that amount is practical at all, not even staying in hostels and using their kitchens. Odds are you will be moving from hostel to hostel and you wouldn't be able to take much purchased food with you. I guess if you are staying in hostels a week at a time, you might be able to do it as long as no one else eats your purchases (often happens in hostels for items left in the kitchen fridge).

Ackislander

I would reiterate nytraveler' s question: what do you spend at home for food? We generally spend in pounds what we would spend in dollars at home and close to the same in euros.

nytraveler

30 pounds for a week plus salad, fruit, milk and bread - so - nowhere near 30 pounds.

Not sure what you are used to eating - or your appetite. I fyou want to go for 20 pounds that's fine. I would just be sure that you have access to additional funds if you find that you need them.

Summer of 2011 my 19 year old DD and 2 friends spent almost 6 weeks in europe. In Barcelona they met a couple of other american girls who had totally miscalculated their expenses - and found themselves out of money with 3 days until their plane left. My DD and friends helped them contact their families to send them more money so they could at least pay for a hostel and food until the plane left. Costs in europe had turned out to be much higher than expected (but perhaps less of a shock to someone from the UK than from a small town in the US).

Christina

I'm surprised the bread prices in France have been deregulated that long and it is so cheap -- but, a plain baguette is still less than 2 euro in neighborhood bakeries, isn't it?

Pvoyageuse

A plain baguette is usually 85 cents to €1.

thursdaysd

Suggest you take a look at the per country costs at lonelyplanet.com. Posters here tend to spend rather more.

sal_angel2

instead of criticizing me please offer your advice, like i said i have never travelled before and need help to figure out an average food budget for each day.

jamikins

I think people were trying to offer advice - the advice is generally that you need a higher budget.

I would also recommend posting on Lonely Planet's Thorntree message board as there appear to be more people on limited budget there that may offer more of the type of advice you are looking for.

ahiddenbird

A big part of the experience of traveling to different countries is trying the different types of food that you wouldn't get at home! It's an easy and fun way to experience the culture in a new place. If I were you, I would try to have a bigger food budget for that reason alone. Yes, you could survive on your small budget, but it wouldn't be any fun