One week in spain...how much spending money

[Itsallaboutme3]

We are off to Spain on our first family holiday; myself, dp an two dc. Self catering. How much spending money would you take? Dc are 1 and 5.
Tia

It depends on how you want to cater e.g are you looking to have breakfast and lunch in, and then dine out at night? Do you want to purchase drinks outside at bars etc or happy to buy from supermarket etc.

Everyone differs. For me, I don't like to cook on holiday (except breakfast), I don't like to scrimp on filling bottles of water up etc and I like evening meals out so I'd take £1000 per week for two adults and two kids although I'm sure it can be done for half that! but for me, watching the spends does not make for a holiday. (That's why we often go all inclusive and then eat out a few times as works out much cheaper).

Don't underestimate the cost of drinks, ice creams etc as the food alone side can be done reasonably. It's all the extras on top that can double your daily spends.

We usually take £100 a day.

It totally depends on your plans. If you plan to go to the local (and, no doubt, extremely cheap by UK standards) supermarket, you could do it very cheaply and eat very well. For example, a box of six icecreams bought at the supermarket will be less than one bought from the poolside bar so, if you're happy to dp this and have a freezer, you can save money like this. Last year, we found that many of the icecream style desserts served in the local restaurants could also be purchased in the supermarkets. A bottle of wine could be purchased for less than a â?¬ and tasted fine - we bought one the first day, along with two more expensive bottles, and preferred the cheap one

a euro

Spain is more expensive than you would expect. I would expect to spend €1 if sonething normally costs £1, but it does depend on what you buy. If you buy English products, you will spend much more. We always go to a large supermarket (usually 2 as only one sells lactose free milk and I don't like that one).

Disagree that it is more expensive than you think. It can be done cheaply. We shop at aldi/lidl in Spain and it's about the same ( or was last year) .agree re booze and keeping the m&s going with freezer ice creams ( or supermarket lemon granita- yum!)

We tend to eat salad/ bread/cheese in the day and pasta or other 1 pot easy meals in the evening and go out alternate nights if it's all 5 of us.

Cheap meals out can be had even in very " british" areas if you are a little adventurous. The " menu del dia" at the spanish bar down the road from my sister was 10e all in - salad starter, bread , wine/ beer , set main course (chicken casserole, fish, rabbit etc ) and a choice of simple puds- rice or creme caramel etc.

We don't eat in " british " type restaurants but there are also good cheap chinese/ wok buffets ( cheap at lunch , more expensive, but huge choice for say 15e in the evening) and our favourite place for steak etc is Argentinian at top price 15e main.

( this is near Alicante)

Having said all that with a 5yr old and 1yr old I'd probably feed them pasta all week or what ever low stress food they will eat , buy nice local bread / cheese/ fruit /veg / chorizo / booze and eat in ! A meal out with smalls is a major operation if you can go to somewhere you know will suit ( unless thry are intrepid eaters - my youngest was but eldest at 1 not at all !)

Currency conversion rate is currently 1 euro = 71p so, on that basis, a euro for a pound is just under 30% cheaper than in the UK.
We ate lots of fresh fish and amazing fruit and vegetables very cheaply. We ate out comfortably for around 50 pounds - two adults and dc, 11 and 16.
Petrol is a lot cheaper and the thing we liked the most is that you rarely (if ever) have to pay to park.
Also, if you want a day away from the sun, head for the shopping malls and pick up some new clothes for a steal too.
I hope you have a great time.

The supermarket we used was a Mercadona

obviously you don't take more than a float of say E100, and you withdraw the rest as you need it on your debit card, having told the bank where you are going.