Villa holidays - how to do them with a spending money budget and other food and drink tips?

[Claymorekick]

After 10 years of all inclusive hotel holidays, we really want to do a villa holiday this summer for a change.

I am after any ideas about how to budget whilst on holiday without having to cook every night (otherwise it is not much of a holiday!)

How much spending money do you take (for 2 weeks), what do you do for breakfast/lunch/drinks etc?

Any tips really for managing money, food and drink 🍸

First thing I do it head to the supermarket - in Europe there is usually an Sldo or Lidl. It helps to make a list beforehand but I stock up on breakfast items, drinks, snacks, fruit, ice pops and fillings for sandwiches etc.

I will usually head to the bakery (theres always one close) and buy a baguette and throw together a few sandwiches.

We do a mixture of eating in and out. So of weve had a full on day I would just do a quick pasta dish or BBQ.

Budget wise it depends on how many are in your party and where you are going.

I also take a fabric freezer bag. I freeze water bottles and take them to the beach.

Doing the above, I budget £100 per day for eating out for myself and my 2 teen DC and we usually holiday in Greece/Croatia/Balaerics.

Also I prefer to take cash so if we are going for 10 nights I'll split the cash 10 ways so I know exactly where I am. Sometimes I carry some over and other days not.

It just helps me to keep on top of things.

I also need to sort out budget for a week sc in May. I think dinners are the most pricey so I'm prob going to look up local restaurants to find an idea of average costs and price up a normal night out for us all. Multiply by 7!

Then allow €15? per day for breakfast food and snacks from a supermarket.

Then maybe 4 x lunch out - not as much as a dinner - and 3 x lunch 'in' so another €15 for those days??

Plus booze.

But I've never done this before as usually just go on a wing and a prayer but need to be more careful with our cash this time.

We have bbqs by the pool and EVERYONE cooks. It's fun, much more reasonable than eating out.

We don't take 'spending money' or budget as such, everything is paid for on debit/credit card (research this on Moneysaving Expert if you're not already up to speed) and limit the cost by mostly eating out once a day in 'normal' places not anywhere particularly fancy.

We then stock up in the supermarket for easy food, drinks, snacks etc and make sure there's a supermarket or large convenience store near the accommodation so we can go back as needed.

We generally have a late substantial breakfast like ready made Spanish omelette and ham/tomatoes/bread or eggs etc then head out for the day.

We often have a late lunch and then easy/snacky stuff in the evening. If I've had a big breakfast and a cooked lunch at 3/4 pm I'll only have something very small in the evening like cheese/crisps/olives or a tapa if eating out.

Or we'll have lunch in the accommodation and eat dinner out, or have a BBQ. Or have a big ice cream or slice of pizza while out in lieu of lunch.

So any 'cooking' is very basic and all cooking/washing up/dishwasher duties are done collectively, no need at all for you to do it all.

We also don't do any of the tidying and cleaning that a lot of Mumsnetters seem to do on a self catering holiday before declaring it 'not a holiday'. We spend all the time we're not asleep or out and about on the terrace and the inside living areas are generally just used as storage. Everything will get tidied and packed away when we leave, so I don't see any need to keep things clean and tidy in the meantime.

We do a big shop on the way to the villa for drinks and snacks and some breakfast foods. We always eat breakfast in the villa and then eat out for either lunch or dinner depending on what we are doing that day. If we eat lunch at the villa it will be baguette, cold meats, salad, crisps etc. If we eat dinner at the villa it is usually a bbq or pasta and salad. We don't cook any elaborate meals.