NYC Spending Money

[trvl2000]

Me and my partner are due to travel to NYC for 6 days, We've budgeted £150 per day for both of us excluding trips as we have prepaid for these. The £150 is for food and the subway. Do you think this is sufficient? We're not going to be getting Ubers.

TIA

Yeah I would say that is oceans. I eat like a piggy at home but whenever I am in NY - I go every 2 years and would go more if I was rich - I get so busy going to look at all the sites shows and shops , that I end up missing lunch by accident and don’t even notice or care, which saves money lol.

but yes, subway weekly cap is 34 dollars. Breakfast I am lazy and get coffee and a pastry or a donut which runs to about 8 dollars. Lunch when I’ve remembered has been either a pizza to share for about 25 dollars or a ready made salad from whole foods, can’t remember the cost but think it’s just under 12 dollars. You can get loads of cheap on the go lunches like pizza slices. Dinner, I’ve had mega expensive (to me!) meals for 80 dollars and budget eats for 20-30 dollars so depends what your mood is for the night, I’d book ahead if you want any fancy dinners (use open table). I skip alcohol when I’m there to save money and I also buy multipack drinks at a shop and keep one in my bag so that I don’t pop into cafes on my travels and buy an overpriced water

so in summary I think 150 for both will do you well if you’re clever. Enjoy ;)

When I went a few years ago I was charged $7 for a bottle of water and $8 for a Starbucks latte. It was a bit of a shock! However I often just grabbed a slice of pizza on the go when I was peckish and that wasn't expensive. I think if you're not stopping at restaurants for meals all the time, you can do it on that budget.

Thanks Guys

Have a look at menus online near the place you are staying and the places you are visiting. Don’t forget to add tax and tip!

New York prices have increased a lot so you need to do some planning to stick to a budget.

I definitely would not say $150 per day for 2 is oceans.

The Time Out Cheap Eats guide is very accurate and the places we visited were all excellent!

NYC's 19 best cheap eats are all $10 or less (timeout.com)

40 Affordable Places to Eat in NYC (eater.com)

The Top Inexpensive New York Restaurants of 2022 - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

We tried several restaurants which were ~$150/200 for two and were not impressed at all with the quality we got. If I were to ever go again I'd stick with the cheap eats guide.

No. But it depends really. Is breakfast included in the hotel? If you keep eating from food trucks and pizza it'll probably be fine but a single restaurant dinner would exceed your budget.

It's really hard to say with so little information on your plans and expectations.
Are you planning on having a sit down breakfast and lunch everyday? Going to any fancy restaurant or the hotel's restaurant of a night time for dinner? Are you planning on buying anything like drinks, snacks, clothes, other bits and pieces? Are you doing any trips where you may be buying souvenirs and/or presents for people back home?

I think it's right if that's to cover everything outside of food. What about if you want to go out for drinks, or a nice meal, or buy anything, do something that's not planned?

That's meant to say tight!

Tricky one as some days you could use a lot less. Ie if a lot of walking and attractions then just grabbing pizza or bagels you’d maybe spend £50 but any sit down dinner for two so gojng to a lot more.
we went to a small kosher bakery on the corner of restaurant row and it cost over $100 for drinks and small pizzas. For 4 of us bit only 3 eating. It was lovely but no way worth that much.
dd liked eating from the places on TikTok so pizza by the slice and bagels or donuts etc. still around $20 a time even sharing.
definitely buy water from a target and take with you each day or take a water bottle and fill it up. I was shocked at $7 bottle of water. Just the 350ml ones from the kiosks. This was in the summer. We went in august.

I highly recommend the bike tuktuk ride through Central Park. Its was expensive but you could barter and it was so good. Lots of information and photo opportunities. Would never have seen half of it walking. They were so good and took us to Times Square after all included in the price.

Plenty of decent food trucks/pizza slice places. Also, Whole Foods, which have various branches and delicious DIY meals.
And an insane sandwich, while looking crazy expensive, would feed both of you!

As others have said, NY is very expensive - bottled water is eye watering! Check if you can drink the water from the tap in your hotel, and top up a water bottle.

£150 is enough if you are eating simple, takeaway type food, or if you go for a basic sit down restaurant (pizza place, deli etc). But anything fancier will probably blow the budget. We went last year and managed by skipping breakfast, having a deli brunch kind of meal, then having pizza or similar in the evening. We've also stayed in Jersey City in the past, near to the PATH train to get to Manhattan, and eating there in the evening was much cheaper (although still expensive!)

Don't forget when looking at menus to add tax and tip to the prices, it can really bump up the prices, and be a nasty surprise if you haven't taken in into account.

It depends how much you eat!

I have two meals a day (petite, female) and was going to budget $80 a day for food for my trip, one of which will be a bit more ‘on the go’ like a pastry/bagel & coffee which I expect will be $10-20, leaving $60-70 for dinner. I’m not a big drinker either, so that won’t get eaten up by wine/cocktails.

I think I’d just about enough, I found prices are roughly double in dollars to what they are in pounds. So in lots of places an £8 starter would be around $16.

I’m going with my DH and grown up DC in May and we have a $35 per room per night charge to pay (we have two rooms) so it could be worth checking if you have this where you are staying.