Cost of self catering holiday in France for a week

[Realitea]

We have just £250 to go on holiday with this year
It's a week self catering in France.
How am I going to do this. There are 2 adults 2 children.

£250 is fine for a week. Don't bring your own coffee though! French properties always have coffee making equipment and coffee is cheaper in supermarkets.

Don't forget to take washing powder dishwasher tablets/ fairy liquid.
I'm just back from a week sc- 8 of us and we are like kings for approx €200 all self catered. Didn't get organised before and just grabbed several Mozarellas and a half jar of pesto but that was supper with pasta the first night and pesto moz and tomatoes made several large baguettes for sandwiches out.

Breakfast
8 bottles of milk
Tub of chocolate
3 packs butter
2 jars jam- one taken with and one bought there
2 big bottles of juice and daily baguettes/ pains au choc, raisins.
Lunch more bread cheese, salads and rilletes/ carotes rapés couscous etc.
I bought about a hundred creme caramels/ mousse au chocolat/ yaourt naturs, sucrés and the biggest box of ice pops I could find so there was self service for the dcs.
Supper was a bit more special- same bread/ salad and pasta/ raclette, the gîte might have a machine or you can borrow from supermarkets and delis if you buy about €20 cheese. Add little potatoes and charcuterie and that's 2 special suppers. Or take a fondue machine? 2 packs emental rapé + wine + 2 baguettes.
I also did artichokes- 1 between 2 and endives gratinées.
Can you take drink with you? Not wine but that dusty bottle of Campari or Pimms will save you €€€ and make a holidayish apéritif.
I've never been so organised on holiday- we were so many in one car that I really didn't want to be doing endless supermarket trips and I've never eaten so well. The only daily shopping we did was bread and patisseries.
Have a lovely time!

I knew the "no sandwiches" but just bread & cheese would get picked up on! I meant that, in our experience, they have little delicatessen shops selling local bread, cheese & meat which DH was more than happy with but, in the experience which will be forever etched on my mind when a 4hr journey had already taken 6 hours and we still had two hours to go & we're getting very stressed about the ferry, the previous services had offered nothing other than crisps & chocolate & I was 34 weeks pregnant, I would have been incredibly grateful for a typical British motorway services with something like a McD's or an M&S or even a Little Chef. I had dry baguette for
lunch & 3yo DD ended up on the best part of an entire packet of chocolate biscuits (she was thrilled at the time but that ferry crossing was the only time she has ever been sick on a ferry crossing) as the cheese was "too smelly" and the bread "too crunchy". The fact the baguette cost over €5 and the cheese and saucisson over €10 each also put a dampener on it.
Sorry, that turned out to be a bit of a rant!

Just back from France. Didnt find the meat expensive. Lots of lovely bbqs packs. In fact was surprised how reasonable the supermarket was. I did take a frozen homemade spaghetti bolengese to take for first night.

Just came back from France. I found supermarket food reasonable priced and lots of cheap packs of bbq meat.
I took breakfast cereal, tea bags, baked beans, olive oil, pasta, rice. Also a frozen homemade bolengese.

We are off to Normandy in a weeks time and also have around £250 for the week to spend.
I plan to take
Pasta
Pesto
Couple tins beans
Cereal
Milk
Fajita kit
Ketchup and mayo
Couple stock cubes
Tin tomatoes
Washing up liquid
Washing liquid tabs
Washing up cloth

Thought first post had failed!

Oh and tea, coffee, sugar

Lots of bread and cheese is a good idea as mentioned up thread. Motorway services sell ready made sandwiches -but just as here in the UK it's all way more expensive than in the supermarkets - or what you could make up yourselves.

if you are out and about each keep a small water bottle - then if you need to purchase more water just buy a large bottle and decant it into your own personal small bottles.

We tend to do a lot of salads for meals when selfcatering. Meats, cheeses, prawns etc. Pasta dishes are always economical too - especially if you can find some bargain tomatoes in the market.

Meat can be more pricey than at home - but sausages are always a winner - I like the spicy merguez type.

Wine and beer is significantly better value - I try and go for minimum 6 euro bottles in the supermarket -and haven't been disappointed yet. Also if there is a 'cave' in your town/village you can get it by the litre. The price often does reflect the quality but it's still drinkable.

And yes to dining out at lunchtime. Most places have the 'menu' - usually 3 courses. Can be as little as 8 or 9 euros. We often do that and dine at home in the evening.

Enjoy !!

Just got back from an enjoyable week I'm France.

Was going to mention the cost of the tolls, but you aren't travelling far so that shouldn't be an issue.

We found a lot of the carparks were free, which was a nice surprise. Also, many attractions weren't too expensive (approx. 20-25 euros for four) although maybe we were lucky. The wine tasting tour was under 10euro, including the tasting, so we all enjoyed that!

The supermarkets aren't too expensive. We took cereal from us, and bought baguettes and cheese for lunch. Bbq in the evening,

I second others who have said to basically raid your home cupboards for pasta, beans, cereals, condiments, etc or go to aldi or tesco and buy the cheapest, value, and smallest packs you can find.

bon voyage!

Meat is a bargain isn't it? Luckily we were able to take €750 for the week in the end so it's turned in to a bit of a 'good food' holiday. The butter here is so amazing and there's a local bread shop that we've visited every morning. There are so many beaches we havent done any days out that charge but tomorrow we plan on doing one and eating out for our final night. Thanks everyone!