Budget for London Study Abroad

You are allowing $200 per week, which is just $28 per day. If that needs to cover three meals a day (plus spending momey) and you do not have access to a kitchen, I don't think it's a safe amount. Where do you live? If it's somewhere like a small Midwestern college town, the ost of living in a major capital like London may come as a shock.

You haven't mentioned public transportation within Londom. Will some or all of that be your responsibility?

Even with only one meal a day in restaurant and the rest as street food, I think you need to budget £25-30/day (£20 or so if breakfast is included where you are staying). You'll need to budget around $1000-1300 just for food; more for add'l sightseeing, in town transportation, beverages throughout the day, miscellaneous personal 'stuff', etc. For 5 weeks I think you need to look at $1500-2000 and you'll also need to keep careful track of your expenses during the first week and then extrapolate from there what the next 4 weeks will cost you and adjust your spending accordingly.

I have transportation we are taking the tube and have regions 1 and 2 covered. We have a kitchen. I am from SLC Utah. I've been to London and Europe.

Sorry I'll try and cover everyone's post. Thanks for your input. Yes museums and plays are covered. Transportation its covered. Board is covered. Side trips are covered. Our student mentor said she brought $1000 for food last year and she was fine. Breakfast is covered as well. If I added $500 I should be fine?

Your budget is right around 20 pounds per day. That should cover you for food and a few extras, as long as you're careful. You won't be able to eat 3 meals a day in restaurants - not even cheap ones. But if you focus on getting most of your meals as cheaply as possible, you'll have money left over for the occasional splurge.

With a kitchen, this is a lot easier. Even if you don't want to do proper cooking, grocery stores sell all kinds of convenience foods that you can use for cheap meals. I think British "ready meals" taste a lot better than US TV dinners, but opinions vary on this. There are also standard staples like sandwich fixings, cereal and milk, etc.

Fresh fruit can be an excellent bargain in London. You might want to look beyond the grocery stores to market stalls, greengrocers, and produce stands. Some have bargains like a giant bowl of oranges for a pound.

When you're out and about and need a meal, inexpensive options include bakery sandwiches, Cornish pasties, and the like. You'll find places all over that sell prepackaged sandwiches for just a couple of pounds - these can be kind of gross, and I get heartburn when I eat them every day, but they're cheap, portable, and filling.

That's just for food, though. You don't say what kind of "places" you'll also be spending your money on. Some London attractions are very expensive and can wipe out your whole budget for the day. On the other hand, many of the best museums are completely free. So choose carefully.

£20 a day isn't enough imo. Even £30 a day feels borderline to me. You're not intending to buy much, or eat here, or go there, but people often spend more than they anticipate, only you will know how good you are at controlling yourself. Good luck you'll have a great time.

Thanks. I hadn't even thought about market stalls. Our group is doing a lot, I didn't want to post the whole itinerary. We are seeing about two plays a week with lectures from different universities. We are staying near Hyde Park and are in walking distance to the V and A and the Royal Albert Hall. I definitely won't be missing out on sight seeing.

Sainsbury sells a killer egg salad. Just a tip for a cheap lunch sandwich. I bought them in Sainsburys throughout the UK last year and they were always good and fresh. (This assumes you like egg salad.)

I would add at least $500 to your budgets; preferably add $750-$1,000

I think it depends a lot on how you are with money. If you're willing to keep a close eye on every expense and pinch pennies until they cry for mercy, you can do well for yourself on 20 pounds a day. If you're not willing or not able to be that careful, you should plan on spending more - possibly much more.

Sticking to a strict budget could be hard when you're with a group. You might find yourself having to say "no" when your friends are all going out somewhere.

I am staying at #37 Hyde Park Gate. I've talked to several of my professor's and they are confident that I have enough money for food. They said study abroad is a little different than regular travel so we aren't going to be eating out every night.

I think you should be fine, assuming you get breakfast at your lodging, and cook dinner there now and then. We have been having lunches in museums while here for around £6-8 per person--that is soup and bread or a nice sandwich or quiche. Tap water to drink ( beverages can kill your budget, even if it is just tea). If out and about, Pret a Manger has lots of options.

If you do wish to go to a restaurant for dinner with friends, the Côte Brasserie chain offers an early evening menu (with choices for starter and main) for £12.50. There is one near Sloan Square, and others all around London.

http://www.cote-restaurants.co.uk/cote/restaurant/menu/sloanesquare

Thanks for the restaurant recommendations. I'll definitely have to check those out.

Food is not paid for. Everything else is, so that includes board.

That's my breakfast. Lunch and dinner isn't.

I have always believed that the term 'board' meant accommodations and meals. As far as I know that's the common definition.

Okay sorry for misusing the word 'board'. I just need to cover lunch and dinner and would like to know if I have sufficient funds.

Okay thank you.

Try to start thinking in £, not in $. Mixing and matching the two magnifies the confusion. Today it costs $1.46 to buy £1.00. I've been in the UK since 2 May and the exchange rate has gone up slightly since I've been here. For simplicity, when I think about it, I think of the rate as $1.50 = £1.00. But I don't think about it all that much. I try to think only in GBP.

I will finish my trip with a week in London which I know will be much more expensive than almost all the other stops along the way. So far my food costs have consistently averaged between £15 and £20 per meal counting everything, lunch or dinner. The only time that is not the case is when I buy a pre-made packaged sandwich (I love the egg mayonnaise ones) or get something like cheese, crackers and fruit for an in room picnic. Then the cost can be between £5 and £10.

You can come up with a daily budget. I think that to include anything beyond the cheapest and most basic meals for lunch and dinner, plus the non-covered things you want to see and do, you need to be prepared to spend £50 per day. That's more than double what you were thinking. I do think you have under budgeted, but I agree that £98 per day ($5000 for 5 weeks) is not needed.

I did a similar study abroad at UCL (stayed in university housing with a full kitchen and 4 flat mates). My daily expenses were food and entertainment and if I recall correctly I spent about £750 over the five weeks and that included more trips to the pub and clubs than were probably necessary.

I'll be one of the ones to say that your budget is fine as long as you track your expenses, eat in, and frequent the student union for a pint rather than the pub.

DJ