I'm trying to gage how much to expect to spend daily on food. I am renting an apartment and plan on eating breakfast in and either lunch or dinner. I figure if we are out and about, we may just eat a big lunch out and a small dinner back at the apartment. We are not big eaters. I will be with my husband and 2 kids. Don't need anything too over the top everyday. What have your thoughts been, especially when traveling with the kids.

Oh, I forgot to mention that it will be for Paris, Lisbon and London.

ANYONE!!!!!

Calm down--it hasn't even been an hour and a half since you posted.

Most have probably not responded because this is a highly variable category. It depends on the type you food eat, after all! It's like asking someone how much to spend on shoes--some people are happy with Hush Puppies, others want Ferragamo.

For what it's worth, I like what I consider nice food, but I like to don't spend a ton of money--5E on breakfast (0 if included in hotel cost), maybe 10-20E on lunch and 30-40E for dinner (up to 75E or so for a splurge once or twice per trip), so I budget 60-75E a day for food. But that may not match your eating habits at all... You could do it for much less or much more.

Oops--I also forgot to mention the places. I'm referring to what I've done during trips to France and Italy.

Thanks for the reply. Guess I'm a little overtired;hence the impatience.

You will probably spend whatever you allot for the food. If it is just me, I shoot for $10 per day if I am going budget, and if I am splurging, it is whatever won't max out the card. In London, feeding a family of 4, no matter how not-foody you are is going to cost around $100 per day, even if you are cooking. Lisbon is cheaper, and Paris, well, depends on what you are doing. My cousins ate Croque Monsieur and crepes the whole time, so they were really cheap, but me and the adults were more expensive. AGain, probably around $100 or more per day.

Claire

Our budget for food while in Europe was
75 Euro per day total for two people and most of our hotels included breakfast in the price. In Paris, with free breakfast we would either have a chicken gyro and a beer at cafe D'istanbul in the 13th for 12 euro total or frence bread, ham and wine and sit in the park behind the tower and people watch, cost about 10 Euro. For dinner we would find nice restaurants were the locals went for dinner not the tourist traps! and have a great 5 course meal with wine and bread for about 40 euros total.

We normally ate a neighborhood places and usually spent 30-40 euro for dinner for the two of us including wine.

Lunch varied--usually 10-15 euro together depending on whether we went for "hand" food like sandwiches or pizza or something at a sitdown place.

Hi N,

I think that you should take what you normally spend on food at home and convert to Euro.

Lunch can be anywhere from 5 to 75E pp, depending on what and where you eat.

I agree with Ira, its hard to advise somone how much to spend on food we all differ so greatly!

I agree with Ira..and as to those two delightful children, how old are they? In other words, if they are at the "hollow leg" stage you could be spending a great deal.

Agreed - if you have boys in the 12 to 16 range they could run through 100 euros a day by themselves. And don't forget the very high prices of Coke - and the tiny size of the cans/bottles.

Yes, it they are teenaged boys buy some food at the grocery and put it in their backpacks for when they are starving. You can't take them to restaurants more than once or twice a day without breaking the bank. My husband and I split one meal at restaurants because we don't want to get fat on vacations but our son would eat the whole menu and he was a skinny teenager!

I think you can adapt your budget to be whatever you need it to be (within reason)...

Plan it out like if you are at home in the same situation. How much do you spend per day on your family's groceries if you added up one meal in a restaurant, two prepared at home, and snacks on the go? Convert to euro. It won't be that different on your trip.

A few items might shock you as mentioned above, such as the price of soda if that's something your kids are big on.

Thanks everyone. Well, I can thankfully say that my 8 yr old son and my 12 yr old daughter are both very skinny and don't eat much. I'm more of a snack for breakfast and dinner with a decent lunch. My husband is a decent size eater;likes 3/4 meals a day but not real big ones. I'm hoping to buy food for breakfast and one other meal to prepare at the apt. and eat the other meal out. I am hoping to get by on 100euros a day. I hope that is not too unreachable.

namaka - you can do it with 100 euros, especially if you buy some drinks (water, juice, etc) to consume "on the road" during the day (I'm not saying to bring them into a restaurant.) Buying drinks "out" always adds up. If you like portable snacks such as granola bars, chips, fruit, etc., that will save, too. Have fun!

Four Euros for breakfast per person is generous enough. This would be juice, baked goods, and yogurt.

If you eat lunch out, at say a pizza place, then maybe 12 Euros each or even less, if you don't buy soda pop.

Then for dinner, I'd expect 6 Euros per person, if you are more or less doing it from scratch.

Allow 5 Euros per person for a snack or two (crepe, ice cream, tartelette, croissant, etc.).

Of course you could easily spend more, but not that much less, in my opinion.

The above is for Paris, shopping at discount groceries and local bakeries. Increase by 50% for London, to be on the safe side. Lisbon is almost certainly less.