How much $$$$ will I need???

[juliamour]

I'll be staying in Edinburgh for 23 days and have my hostel and plane ticket to London already paid for so the money I'm taking is for the Fringe Festival and food. I plan on not eating out except at the cheapest places 5$ USD a meal or less.....and I plan on not really doing anything expensive as much as just observing and enjoying another place. I'm a 95 lb girl who doesn't need much to sustain herself....I'm petite and mostly I was just wondering about bus travel throughout Edinburgh and stuff. So as of right now I have 1200 USD....is that enough or will I need more in an experienced backpacker's oppinion?

i understand it is only 600 pounds

Ohh and the planeticket for London is during my trip.....I also already have my roundtrip ticket to Edinburgh from the US paid for.

[WillTravel]

In Edinburgh, I think there are zero places you can get a $5 USD meal (about 2.5 pounds). But you can eat pretty well from the grocery store for that price. I know my daughter and I bought food for 10 British pounds, and this was enough to give us several light meals. We went to Lidl, on Nicholson Street, which is one of the cheaper grocery stores. But this is contingent on you having a kitchen at the hostel.

If your hostel is well-located, you won't need bus tickets at all, except if you want to get out of Edinburgh. Where are you staying?

The expensive thing is tickets for Fringe Festival plays, because if you want to see a bunch of plays in one day, the prices sure add up (I think you can count on 5 to 10 pounds per ticket). Are you a performer? Do you get any special deal on that? In any event, there is the half-price tent also.

[crystal]

Edinburgh festival is expensive but not impossible.
As Will said you will not get a meal for £2.50 anywhere. Even something like Macdonalds is gonna cost £3+ and a limp pre-packaged sandwich can cost £2+.

If you plan to use grocery stores look out for Lidl, Netto or Aldi. These are discount stores and you should get quite a lot of food for your money but remember you have to store it and have access to a cooker. If you do want a treat of a meal out look at what deals the pubs have. Somewhere like a Weatherspoons pub often have good special offers on meals (buy one get one free ect ...).

The simple maths is that $1200 divided by 23 days is around $52 I think you are going to have to be super carefull with your funds.

[mango]

You can pick up some freshly baked goods from one of the chains of bakeries - somewhere like Greggs you could get a ham and cheese parcel or a pastie and a bag of donuts for £2.50. Not sure this is really "eating out" unless you count the fact that you'll have to stand in the street to eat it..