To think this is plenty of spending money?

[londontripspendingmoney]

Partner and I are going to London tomorrow for 3 nights with our toddler. We are driving there and mileage is around 270 miles each way. Hotel is paid for already so it's just fuel costs, food and activities / shopping etc that we need to factor in. We have a budget set aside for this and there's £600 in the pot currently. We have already booked and paid for one activity happening on Friday, so the cost of that isn't needed. The £600 is for fuel, food, travel in London (tube etc), and any other activities we might choose to do. Bearing in mind we are only there for two full days (Friday and Saturday), with tomorrow and Sunday being full days of travel (so only food and fuel costs needed on those days). Even if we chose to do a small amount of shopping on the Saturday, surely this is enough money? Partner thinks we will overspend and need more and end up using the credit card. I don't agree - I think £600 for this trip is do able for 2 adults and a 2 year old

Thoughts? Who is right?

I think it should absolutely plenty but maybe agree not to do actual shopping beyond the odd cheap souvenir, just put the £600 towards food, drink, petrol and activities? If there's any left over you can spend that when you're back.

It should be pretty easy to manage to stay within budget.

If you need to stick to the budget then a bit more planning might be sensible. Look at free activities like museums rather than expensive attractions.

Put a temporary freeze on your credit card so that it takes a bit more thought to use it and transfer just the £600 to an account with a debit card or use "pockets" on your current account to ensure that it isn't too easy to go over budget.

If you want to save some money sit on the top deck of the number 12 bus from Oxford Circus as it goes past most of the main tourist spots and will cost you a couple of quid rather than the rip off open top buses.

It’s entirely down to how you choose to spend your time and cash. You could buy a picnic breakfast to eat in your room each morning from one of the millions of small supermarkets available. Ditto wine to drink in your room after toddler sleeps and you watch a quiet movie.

Make a rough plan of what you want to do and see and then plan accordingly. Toddlers have a pretty low tolerance for museums ( although the Young V&A is a delight and free, and sightseeing. Things like the dinosaurs at the NHM have long queues. The London Aquarium is lovely for the very young but would be a bigger ticket destination.

Leave your CC in your hotel safe. Available in an emergency but not for impulse purchases.

Have fun. Wrap up warm.

I don’t think it’s enough

If it was me I'd set up a spreadsheet working out the fuel costs, parking, tube etc, look at the menus of the places I wanted to eat at to work out a food budget and then work out what activities I wanted to do and how much that is.

Then whatever is left from that is your shopping budget.

That might be a bit anal for some...but that's exactly what I'd do!

This is how long is a piece of string, Christ you could do it on a hundred quid, you could do it on a thousand, it really depends on what you decide to do.

Sounds do-able to me

You can calculate the fuel cost on the rac fuel calculator

Thanks for all the replies, lots of helpful suggestions!

We are now thinking possibly doing London Zoo on Saturday... so I will price that up!

Perfectly possible. London has cheap eats like weatherspoons like everywhere in England. I have eaten main meals close to Kings Cross station for a £10. But it also easy to spend a lot of money in London and not get much for it.

Independent places where you can get a main meal for £10 or less. I would allow £50 for each evening meal. With a buffet breakfast at hotel this will be enough with just a few snacks and drinks to see you through.
https://www.wanderlustchloe.com/cheap-restaurants-london/

It depends! You can definitely make it work but need to do so by planning and being careful in your choices.

But eating out in London is very expensive, goes without saying but just to underscore. Mains are at least £25, really, and remember almost everywhere in London adds a 12.5-15% service charge to your meal which really ratchets up the cost vs the menu price. Two courses each and a bottle of wine can easily be £140.

That said, anywhere worth eating at (and plenty of places that aren't!) need to be booked well in advance, especially in December (I've found it impossible to get a table anywhere for the rest of this year without connections/pulling strings), so you should be able to figure out those costs pretty exactly based on where you have made your reservations.

I agree that you may want to take the odd cab when out with a toddler as you'll be tired, so that will be at least £30 a pop.

But with so many wonderful free experiences on offer, you can fill many hours for nothing (although beware of the London museum cafe, home of the extortionate sandwich!)

I have never paid as much as £140 in London or anywhere for a meal.
If you eat high end you will pay high end prices.

When I used to travel to London for work a lot two years ago I used to eat at a Bangladeshi cafe that did the best vegetarian curries I have tasted in any restaurant. It was two years ago, but with chappatis a main meal cost about £7.

Presumably the op has bed and breakfast booked.

Petrol £80
Service station drinks and snacks x 4 £60
Sandwich lunches x 2 £50 (London Zoo jelly - ouch)
Chinese in Soho £75
Burgers or Pizza Express £75
Travel cards for two days £60 (depends on zone)
Wine for your hotel whilst toddler sleeps £15

That tots up to £415 so £185 for entrance fees and bits and pieces.

It's doable but you will have to watch the pennies.

There's plenty to do and enjoy in London for reasonable spends or for free.

I hope you have a good time.

Do people really spend £60 on service station food and drinks? Wow.
And with a buffet breakfast and a meal out you do not need a sandwich lunch. We just buy fruit for lunch and take water bottles.

St Martins cafe in the basement of the church used to do cheap meals and it is quite atmospheric and very central. It closes early, but with a toddler you will not be eating out late anyway.
https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/visit/cafe-in-the-crypt/

@mantyzer not in one go. Two stops on the way down, two on the way up. Two coffees are £7, a sandwich is £5, the toddler will want something. You could of course take pack-ups for the car on the way down.

Christ some of the replies.
It's totally doable! With a toddler you aren't going to want to sit down for a fancy 3 course meal and an expensive bottle of wine. There are loads of nice places you could eat quite cheaply . Tommys burgers are the best burgers I've ever eaten and it's £10 for a burger, fries and a drink!
Avoid the super touristy places that over charge. Chinese is a good shout and lots do buffets so you can pick the bits you want. With a toddler it could be worth getting something from deliveroo delivered to hotel for dinner?
Also £30 taxis?! Just get an Uber if necessary or take a stroller
Zoo is super expensive, the museums are amazing and free! National history museum is great. There's a creepy brilliant one in hoburn but I can't remember the name.
Or go to the Tate and see the river, go over millennium bridge and just see the Christmas markets that are around?
Avoid shopping streets as they'll be rammed and hideous

Also check if you'll need going into congestion zone and need to pay charge

Don’t be silly @laclochette - it’s not true at all that meals in London have to cost £140 and that mains are always £25.

Off the top of my head, you can have the set menu at the Wolsey for about £30, and the Burger in the Ivy us about £20.

And bog standard local independent places / chains that you might go to with a toddler are probably less.

You would not want to go to the places that are £140 with a toddler anyway.
And places like Pizza Express are overpriced. Much better to go to an independent. There are loads of articles about cheap eats in London.

And take your own food for the service station on the way down and buy a meal deal for travel back up. And just sit at the tables. We always do. If you do this you can eat much nicer food that you could buy in the service station.

That's a lot. I'd feel ill if I spent that much in two days.

It's about control surely.

What are your expected petrol costs? That's the main one cos you need to get home. Put it on envelope 1 and write PETROL on it.

How many food stops are you making given your toddler will need to pee 5093 times? How much do you reckon per stop? Put it in bundles in an envelope and write FOOD STOPS on it.

What's left?

Is breakfast included with the he hotel?
Either way, how many proper meals are left to pay for? How much do you reckon (you have a toddler so you won't be drinking very much or parting til 2am)? Put that in envelopes for day1 breakfast/lunch day1 dinner etc.

What's left?

Put some money in both wallet / purse for incidentals - bottle of water, a snack at the part, etc.

Put some money aside for general spends - souvenirs, entry fees.

Is that more or less than £60

If you don't have enough for that meal etc, you take it out another envelope but you'll have to consciously think about what choice you're making. Different to wacking it on a card.

Money left over goes into purse or general spends envelope.

Course it can but you need to plan a bit. Not everyone needs £140 meals and £30 cabs

Take own food/drinks for journey down at least.Look at fuel prices and work it out cost wise

Plan: Have a rough idea where you’ll want to eat, out and about or near the hotel? Have a search for places and prices. Do you have breakfast included? If not maybe find somewhere cheaper nearby ( hangry toddler) hotel brekkies can be expensive but may help time wise.

Have a rough idea of where you are going, tubes/transport etc maybe plan an activity with something else like suggested above that’s free. You don’t want to be wandering round and end up going somewhere expensive. Spontaneous can be more expensive than more planned ( not a strict timed plan but a rough idea)

Its near Christmas places will be very busy, if you have anything else that’s bookable it may be an idea. What’s shopping? Full on Christmas shopping, treats? Just a souvenir etc, the shops will be rammed. It’s only 4 weekends to christmas

Packed lunch for the journey on Thursday - negligible cost. Ditto snacks for the whole weekend - bring them from home.

Is breakfast in the hotel included? (I can't imagine paying for the hilton and not paying for breakfast) if so, make it a BIG meal, that way you can afford to pick up a sandwich meal deal for lunch at £4 each.

Dinner Thursday, Friday, Saturday can be as expensive or as cheap as you want - plenty of cheaper places, look for more independent cafés/restaurants for better value, Maccies (at a push).

London zoo will be pricey but whilst you're there you're not spending money elsewhere.

Public transport not horribly expensive for 2 days in the Central zones.

Shopping.. How long is a piece of string....