lalalacheesejah

I'm trying to work out how much I'll spend on food daily for 1 month in England.
London for a week, Canterbury, Salisbury, Bath, Moreton-in-Marsh, York, Keswick, Manchester. And other day trips to Dover, Jurassic Coast, blah blah.

I'm hoping to stick to B&Bs and hostels that include breakfast in the price. And I'm gonna try to eat at pubs/picnics/cheap joints as often as possible. No fine dining for us (2 college kids).

So basically how much should I expect to pay if I eat mostly pub grub and do picnics and markets and NOT nice restaurants? I've read anywhere from $20 a day per person to $80.

A decent pub meal is $15???
Is $60 for two people a day reasonable?

Thanks yo!

rogerdodger

First you need to think in pounds not $. A simple pub lunch, no drinks, around 6to 8 pounds or about 9 to 16 $'s. You could do cheaper by buying a pre-packaged sandwich for about 3 pounds. Pub dinner anywhere between 8 to 12 pounds.

Alec

In London and other places in the South, expect around £10 incl small drink (1/2 pint of beer, glass of coke etc) for a pub lunch. Up to £5 for sandwich, can and cake/fruit. In the North, expect a little less, around £8 in a pub and £4 for snacks. There is often a meal deal, such as sandwich plus water/coke and crisps for £2 from Tesco and Asda supermarkets, and from independent shops. Pubs often do 'two meals for £10' deal for lunch. Since the start of the recession, such deals have become very common, and you can usually find a good deal at least for lunch, sometimes all day.
So US$20 a day per person is quite doable, and you can even do with less in places like Manchester, where a big student population keeps the price affordable.

Alec

And look out for good ethnic foods in places like Manchester. In Rusholme, in the middle of the university district, you can have an authentic curry with rice/nan and popadom for as little as £5, and a jug of free water.

julia_t

A quick reply because I've got to get off the computer very soon.Also I've no idea what the current dollar to pound rate is so I'll answer in GBP.

There are lots of pubs outside towns which do deals at lunchtime - 2 meals for £10, and some are even cheaper especialy the further you go from touristy places. There's one pub up on Lansdown Hill above Bath (if you use the Park & Ride you go past it, it might be called the Wheatsheaf but I'm not sure) anyway they do this sort of deal. I don't think you'll find many such deals in town centres though.

Deals like this tend to be at lunchtimes and sometimes before 7pm in the evenings. I think generally I'd expect to pay around £10 a head as a very rough guide for lunch and/or dinner in most pubs. Thing is, if you have a starter in the evening, or a pudding then the cost will be more. Most main courses seem to be between 6.95 and 14.95 depending on the pub and the menu.
I mean, the veggie crumble will be way cheaper than the local-free-range-organic fillet steak! So like I said, reckon on a tenner a head and discourage the meat eaters from looking at the higher end of the menu! A pudding will be around 3-4-5 pounds, but will be tasty and probably filling! Encourage college kids to eat stodgy puds like spotted dick and treacle sponge to fill them up!

Some pubs will be cheaper than others though that doesn't mean quality will be any worse. The more touristy the location the pub is situated the more you can expect to pay so do get a good OS map, and that pub 2 miles off the main road will often be cheaper than the one you are passing on the main road.

One thing I've found, is rather than buy relatively expensive sandwiches in supermarkets and places like SubWay is seek out local bakeries where they will do filled rolls for a fraction of the price, and with better (and often healthier) produce. For example, where I live in the south Cotswolds town of Stroud, a half-Sub of the Day from SubWay costs me £2.99 and is full of fat and calories, yet a freshly baked roll from Walker's Bakery stuffed with large chunks of roast chicken breast or ham and salad is just £1.10 and so much healthier (for me and my wallet!).

Got to go now, but can post back another day if you've any more questions.

julia_t

FYI, yesterday fellow fodorite Schnauzer and I stopped for lunch in Bibury (Cotswolds) at the trout farm and had a smoked trout quiche with several salads for 6.95 and a smoked trout fishcake for 6.95 as main courses. Drinks were extra. Just to give you a rough idea. Today we stopped by a local coffee shop in Stroud where most main courses were 7.95 - so we went to the aforementioned Walker's Bakery and bought chicken rolls for 1.10 each! Big savings...

P_M

Some of the best and cheapest meals I've had in the UK are from the take-away Indian places. On our last trip to the UK we grew to love Indian cuisine and we were surprised at how cheap it was. If it's a beautiful day take it to the park and have a picnic. If it's raining take it to your hotel and enjoy.

Fashionista

Chinese and Cantonese takeaways are also a good option. Agree about the independents being better and cheaper than the chains.

If $60 is around £40 then that is more than enough for two people a day. Expect you will do it for less unless you start hitting the beer.

sap

Definitely budget for the beer, though. It's one of those things England does very well. I'm usually a wine-drinker who hates beer, but I changed my mind while there.

ElendilPickle

One thing we did to save a bit of time and money was bring Clif bars for lunch. We bought fruit, crisps and things like that at Tesco or another market to go with them.

We also stayed in hostels. While there were only a couple that offered breakfast on our itinerary, they all had self-catering kitchens, so we fixed our own breakfasts most mornings and occasionally cooked dinner for ourselves as well.

Lee Ann

nytraveler

First - hostels don;t usually provide breakfast.

Second, how large an appetite do you have? do you need a hot breakfast every day or are you happy with a roll and coffee?

Are you including snacks and beverages (alcoholic and not) in the price.

We figure $100/$125 per day for lunch, a casual dinner and a drink for 2. If we want a nice dinner we figure that as $200-$300 for both of us.

Obviously you can eat at all different price points.

The one risk is someone (often a teen boy or young man) with a gargantuan appetite - which will completely blow the budget. (When my brother was in high school he could clean the fridge between getting home from practice and dinner - and then eat a full dinner. And that included at least a quart of milk for the snack. My mother could never figure on serving leftovers - since he would always finish them - what 4 normal people would eat for dinner - as a snack.)

sashh

Prices can vary a lot. My two 'locals' are very different. One does 2 meals for £5 - simple stuff, burger and chips and the other doesn't do anything under £10.

Check the menu and if it's expensive then walk out. Wetherspoons pubs usually have 2 for one deals at lunchtime and have pubs all over.

If you are looking for cheap food then you could also look at supermarkets, both to sit in and eat and to buy picnic food.

It's quite an old fashioned idea but some B+Bs will do you a picnic lunch if you ask, but as I said it's an old idea and seems to be in decline

Fashionista

<<<We figure $100/$125 per day for lunch, a casual dinner and a drink for 2. If we want a nice dinner we figure that as $200-$300 for both of us.>>>


What!! Where on earth did you eat?! LOL!

lizziea06

I don't think NYTraveler's budget is unreasonable at all....10-15 quid per person for a nice lunch and then a bit more (50-60) for a moderate dinner w/ wine.

Fashionista

Im sure the posters above went to lovely restaurants, but so that people who read this and are on lower budgets are not put off, it is really easy to eat well for much less on the UK.

tellyman

I agree with sashh, Wetherspoons is great value and have over 700 pubs so you can usually find one in most towns and cities.

$60 a day should be plenty for the two of you.

http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/

wellididntknowthat

<<<We figure $100/$125 per day for lunch, a casual dinner and a drink for 2. If we want a nice dinner we figure that as $200-$300 for both of us.>>>

Fabulous advice except the OP said they were two college kids looking to eat on a low budget. Most respondents seemed to get that.

As most posters mentioned pubs, especially the chains, offer a decent range of options for lunch and dinner. Also, if you have net access, checkout out 5pm.co.uk for whatever locale you're in. They often have arrangement for discounts with tables booked through them. Keep an eye out for "pre theatre" deals, a heavily discounted set menu generally offered for tables vacated early in the evening.

Again lookout for Chinese and Indian restaurants in towns that offer all you can eat buffets at lunch and in the evening, or "businessmens lunches" which offer a couple of courses from a limited menu at a much lower than evening a la carte prices.

Street food is ubiquitous too. Chip shops, kebabs, bakeries (look out for Greggs), sandwich shops will all offer a myriad of options for lunch on the hoof low prices.

Eating copiously and having a couple of drinks thrown in is perfectly possible on £30 a day, with a bit of restraint and using street or supermarket option £20 is doable but might drag if you were doing it for a month

Josser

Look out for places offering all day breakfasts.
Some are very cheap indeed. You can get them in some pubs, supermarkets and some High Street shops.

RM67

Can I second the bakery recommendation? - small local bakers do very affordeable sandwiches, e.g. our local one; £1.50 for cheese and onion with salad on freshly baked bread, made to order - not sat there drying out. Also hot food - small pies, bits of quiche etc can be bought at bakers.

I would definitely recommend getting a pub guide and not just chancing it if you want to eat in pubs - you get some awful microwave/frozen ready meal type rubbish in some pubs, when you could be having a really lovely ploughmans or ham salad with local produce for the same price. Most of the anti-British food comments we see on here I strongly suspect come from people who have eaten in shyte pubs and rubbishy high street chain pizza/pasta/steak places.

One more recommendation - if you are here in summer, try the 'pick your own' fruit farms for cheap berries. These work out very affordeable compared with supermarkets. And they often sell locally produced cream and ice cream to go with them.

You can eat both cheaply and well if you do your research in advance.

Fashionista

Google for voucher sites and register. Pizza Express, HaHa and Cafe Rouge are always doing two for one offers.. All are good but cheap eateries with branches in most towns and all cities (ish).