How much spending money do I need?

Here's one source for prices: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Dublin?displayCurrency=USD

First, don’t take a lot of cash with you. You’ll use your ATM card to get cash out locally altho you may want about 100€ to start with. I like cash on hand to get to town from the airport. Both Ireland and Germany use the Euro. Scotland, of course, uses the Pound.

If you are going to pay cash for meals, I’d expect 40-50 whatevers per person per day. If you plan to charge most meals then probably 15 whatevers per person per day for beer and ice cream, lol!!

First of all, you need to consider some factors. Is breakfast included in some or all of your lodgings? That will impact budget. Are you willing to picnic one or more meals a day or is eating in restaurants more typical?

Do you know some of the key sights or activities you are interested in at each location? You should be able to price these out on the internet. There will be transportation (bus,tram subway) costs in addition to your plane, train costs.

I agree that you will want to pay for most things by credit card. Do a little research now and find out what sort of foreign transaction fees are associated with your current credit card. Consider getting a new card for travel with no fees. The same is true with debit cards. Know the policies and fees in advance and get something different if your current one is a bad deal. Avoid paying in dollars if that choice is given to you at payment. Always pay in the currency of the country.

Taking money out of ATMs really is easy in Europe.

Capital One has no-fee (for foreign transactions) credit cards that are widely accepted in Europe. Discover doesn't charge foreign transaction fees either, but it isn't accepted yet in a lot of places.

Some financial institutions have accounts that do not charge ATM fees in foreign countries. Most take a flat fee or a percentage fee (3% is common), or a combination of both. You don't want that, because you don't want to carry around a lot of cash, or end up leaving the EU with a pile of euros or leaving Scotland with a wad of pounds. If no one comes along soon with suggestions for fee-less ATMs, start a new thread with that in the title.

Never ever use a credit card to make a cash withdrawal! Not only are there likely to be foreign transaction fees, but the bank will treat it as a loan and charge you interest at their (usually) exorbitant rates from the date of withdrawal to the day you pay them back.

It really depends on your plans. Good restaurants or more pub-type? I dunno about Ireland or Scotland. Germany is not massively expensive. But it's not cheap either. Figure 100E min per meal. Cheaper if you go to the market. And that's an option - cheese, bread, meat from a market, and a picnic. Bottle of wine from a local supermarket.

In Berlin, there certainly are beer gardens. Food and beer are not discounted at such places, but they are fun, and very German.

I did this kind of trip with my kids in 2011. The younger twin was in Austria. The older child and other twin were brought along. We had a great time. I enjoyed buying them a glass of wine, or 2, or 3 in some cases. We really enjoyed the trip as adults.

50 Euros/day per person is probably reasonable for food, but of course that can be easily exceeded with one nice restaurant meal and/or if you have a few drinks.

I don't carry any cash with me (unless I had a few euros left from last trip), but I do have money in the bank and use an ATM when I arrive at the airport. Then use my debit card as I need cash. I tend to put everything I can on a credit card (for cash flow purposes) and keep a small amount of money in my pocket at all times (normally under 60 euro) in 20 euro bills or smaller.

For security, I prefer indoor ATM's (airport, department store, grocery store, bank) to ATM's on the street. Also for security, always use one hand as a shield when you enter your PIN so no one can observe. If anyone stands close to you while using an ATM, cancel the transaction, retrieve your card and use another machine.

The nice thing is ATM's spit out local currency. When you're in Ireland and Germany, they give you euros. When you're in Scotland, you'll get lbs. You shouldn't do currency exchange (it's expensive). Gauge how much money you need the last day. Try to run out, or come close, then get local currency after you cross the border.

My debit card charges a flat one percent foreign transaction charge (the credit cards charge no foreign transaction fee). Some banks charge significantly more. If your bank charges, say, $5 plus 3 percent, it's worth opening a checking account at a credit union or better bank so you can use their debit card for travel.

I expect with three kids in tow, you will go through sixty euro a day just getting snacks and drinks. Restaurants, hotels and attractions take credit cards.

Have a great trip.

It really is an impossible question. Theoretically you could get by on €30 pp per day by eating fast/street food, even less if your hotel is providing breakfast. Let's just say for example your stay in Edinburgh provides a full Scottish breakfast as part of the rate, that'll be a very filling breakfast and will likely necessitate a simple sandwich and some fruit bought from a supermarket (less than £5) for lunch you could then visit a chippy in the evening and have a plate of fish and chips for about £8 (even less for a kids portion). So in essence you could get by on £13 and maybe £20 iuf you chuck in a few treats.

Obviously that's being quite frugal but not unpleasant, I'd be quite happy with that for a day or two.

Apply similar costs to Dublin and Germany.

It's making me nervous that you used the words "How much to TAKE with me", three times. Are you actually considering taking a wad of cash with you and want help in calculating how much?

Travel guides (Rick Steves, Lonely Planet, etc) will have rough costs of travel. Some like Lonely Planet will suggest a minimum (lower bound) daily cost. That said, one can travel cheap (a lot of picnics, local transit, self-guided tours and returning home a bit lighter in weight) or travel large (good meals, taxis, personal guides and a lot of stuff).

The big department stores typically have something similar to cafeteria type meals, usually on the top floor. The prices are reasonable, you can see exactly what you’re getting, and it can be healthier than other alternatives.

I’m with Norma , I sure hope you don’t actually plan on taking all the cash you’ll need for whole trip and carrying it around !!! Not safe !

We take about 100 euros to start then withdraw a couple hundred euros every few days from bank atm .

Hints for snacks with kids - a soda/ pop at a cafe or restaurant can be 3-5 EUROS !! I let my kids have one a day , rest of time at restaurants they drank water , BUT I would buy them juice or sodas at corner stores or grocery stores ( more like 1 euro ) a couple times a day , picnic lunch time , or to take back to Hotel for evening , otherwise three kids ordering drinks out can wipe you out !

Thanks everyone. I truly appreciate your replies. No, I am not planning to "take a wad of cash"..Sorry for not being more clear. I have one credit card with no foreign transaction fees. It is a Target Visa card. We used it 5 years ago during a trip to France, England and Ireland. It is great, but only has a $4000 limit. I have other credit cards with more generous limits, but they charge a huge transaction fee. I hoped that this one credit card and some cash might be enough. Not a lot of cash at the beginning, but just when needed from my bank account. Thanks again for your many encouraging and informative replies. You all are a wealth of knowledge.

A credit card is good, but to get cash, you need a debit card with no transaction fees. We use a Chase Sapphire card for credit and a Schwab Bank card for cash. If you withdraw cash on a credit card, they start charging you interest immediately, which can add up.

My credit union has a Visa debit card that does not charge any transaction fees or interest, so I take that for ATM withdrawals. I also take an American Express credit card that does not charge any fees. Although people often say that AE cards are not accepted, I have rarely had a problem. If the AE is not accepted, I can use my credit union debit card which is also a Visa card. (I just have to be sure to have lots of money in the credit union account since the funds are withdrawn immediately LOL). I take another Visa or MasterCard (with fees) as a backup, just in case the other two don’t work, although this has never happened to me.

If I have Euros or whatever leftover from a previous trip, I take them along. Otherwise, I just hit an ATM in the airport for some cash. If I have way too much cash left at the end of the trip, I use some of it to settle part of the hotel bill (I have found that they are fine with taking cash for part of the bill and charging the rest to my credit card.)

Sounds like you are traveling with TEENS, and I remember when I had teenagers in the house joking that I would need a second job to pay for their food! So I would budget on the high end. Have them bring some of their own savings and tell them they can buy whatever they want that you are not willing to pay for. (Amazing how their desire for something will often evaporate!)

One more thought - If you are concerned about the limit on your Target Visa card, call them and ask for them to raise it. Assuming your credit has been good with them, they will be delighted to let you spend more dollars.

Have a wonderful time,

Just a thought: Since you have a low-limit credit card that may be a bit of an issue when you're traveling in a group of four, perhaps you could send extra money to the card company right before you leave? I've never done that intentionally, but on one occasion I ended up with a substantial credit balance on a card I didn't use a lot (wasn't traveling at the time). Eventually they sent me a check without my having requested it, but it took awhile. I don't know that this would work with your company, but you could call and ask. The safest thing to do would be to pay extra when you make the last payment before your trip. (I'm assuming here that you pay off the balance each month; if not, ignore this suggestion.)

Ann's given you an excellent idea. I do a lot of online banking and I can schedule a payment for a future date.

However, you probably can't pay for a taxi with plastic and some shops may not accept a card, especially for small purchases. Find out what fees your bank charges. It may be worthwhile to open an account with an institution that doesn't charge fees. Or you could take a few hundred dollars in larger notes (50, 100) in a money belt and change them in Europe. There must be change offices in Dublin and Berlin. Be careful not to change too much money in Scotland - you'll probably get Scottish pounds that are not always accepted in other parts of the UK.

I am learning so much from all of you!! Thank you!

Norma makes a whole lotta sense and has the intellect to back it up.

I have no idea what the diamonte6 post is about.

I would take a second credit card as a backup in case the first one doesn't work for some reason. Be sure to notify the credit card companies in advance that you are going to Europe, although one time even though my husband notified them in advance, they wouldn't approve the charges(and there was no balance on the card at the time).

Hi, Travel Man, the issue is I have never done this before on a limited budget. The last time we went to Europe, money was not an issue as I was married and we had more money than we needed. We spent what we wanted. This time will be different, our spending will be limited. However, there are 4 of us and we are there 2 weeks. I hope NOT to spend and entire $4000 on food and entertainment, but I also want to be reasonable. I have been saving for a year for this trip, so we will get to enjoy some nice meals, but it won't be for every meal we have. Thankfully, I do have 2 other credit cards and bank accounts, so I will definitely have a back up in case. The Target card has no foreign transaction fee, so I hope to put it all on there and pay it off when we return home. This is my second trip to Europe, first time in Germany and Scotland. I am very much a novice at this and I appreciate all the kind and helpful tips.

I used this strategy 3 years ago when we traveled with family (including 2 kids) and plan to use it again this summer when there will be just four of us, granddaughters are 14 and 17 now and adventurous eaters. I calculated about how much it would cost for all of us to have to take a cafe break if one person got “hangry” and realized it could be a significant cost. I decided to give each person Kind bars to snack on if they became hungry when we weren’t all ready to stop and eat or drink. We carried a few smallish bottles of water too, fortunately these girls don’t drink soda but do like water and juice. For us, I think this strategy helped keep us from slipping into the 4 meal a day budget buster.

If you have a $4,000 budget for 4 people for 14 days, that's roughly $70 (62 Euro) per day per person for 3 meals, snacks, beverages, taxi rides, public transit, admission costs and tours. You may want to consider signing up for an Uber account if you don't already have one - their rates are sometimes better than a standard taxi. Make sure everyone has really comfortable shoes and plan to do a lot of walking instead of always jumping in taxis or Ubers to just go 1-2 kilometers. Be realistic and have a back-up credit card with you just in case you run into an emergency.

I know sometimes tours are tempting, but they can be expensive when multiplied by 4. In a cities as compact and walkable as Dublin or Edinburgh, don't waste your money on things like Hop-on/Hop-off tour bus. Look for free or low cost tours where you can, or ones that are included with the cost of your admission to a specific museum or attraction.

If your lodging doesn't include free breakfast, I'd hit up a local grocery store and do a picnic style breakfast on the go - yogurt, a few scones, juice and some fruit. If you want to eat in a restaurant, do it during lunch when the prices are cheaper. For dinner you can do fast food or cheap and filling ethnic foods like Chinese, Thai or Indian. Or stop in a Marks & Spencer Simply Food and look at what prepared foods you can share (pre-made salads, whole roast chicken, pasta). Remind your kids some of their habits back home need to be altered for these 2 weeks - maybe at home they like to drink two or three 20 oz. bottles of Coke or get themselves a couple large iced coffees with whipped cream. That stuff will chip away at their daily food budget fast. Refill water bottles from the tap and set a limit on things like soft drinks as treat every few days rather than each and every day. Get away from expensive tourist areas when you want to eat your meals. Restaurants in those "high rent districts" right near big attractions are always going to cost more and the food is often not that great.

Your costs will vary day to day. I've eaten 3 meals for as little as $25, but on other days I've gone all out. Overall, for food and beverages only, $50 USD (roughly 44 Euro/38 Pounds) per day per person should be fine - you won't eat at Michelin starred places, but you won't starve either.

Do utilize grocery stores. They usually have a variety of prepared sandwiches, salads, and the like, which are far cheaper than restaurant meals.

Does your ATM card have fees for foreign use? If not (or if they fees are lower than your credit card fees), you can take out cash from ATM's, so you won't have to put everything on the credit card. If it does have high fees (many big banks like Chase and Bank of America charge 3% PLUS $5 for every foreign withdrawal), you have time to get another account.

I don't know where you live, but TD Bank has low/no fees for foreign use. Their Convenience Checking has a $100 minimum balance, and charges just $3 per foreign withdrawal (no percentage fee). Their Premier Checking has a $2500 minimum balance, but charges no fees for foreign use. And each branch has a machine to create an ATM card (the permanent one, not a temporary), so you can set up a new account and walk out with your card ready to go. I have no connection to them except as a satisfied customer. They're only in some parts of the country; branch locator here: https://www.tdbank.com/net/absearch/

Credit unions and Charles Schwab are other sources of low fee/no fee ATM cards; I have no personal experience with these, but others here can help if you're interested.

I'm worried about acraven's idea to create a credit balance on your card. Theoretically it could work but it may also put a fraud alert on the card and keep you from using it at all until you call the bank. When I was a banker, we had a recurring fraud issue related to that.

Credit cards with no foreign transaction fee are commonplace now. It might be a good time to get rid of some cards and replace them with cards that don't have those fees. If it were me, I'd call each bank and ask if they offer another card with no foreign transaction fee? If not, check out some of the bigger credit unions. I shop for no annual fee, no foreign transaction fee and reasonable interest rates. I pretty much ignore rewards, points or teaser rates (I consider them nice add-ons rather than important features).

We spent three weeks in Europe with ours kids 11 & 15) last summer. We stayed in apartments, so breakfast wasn’t included. We walk down to the local bakery and stop at the local grocery for juice. This was one of my husband’s favorite parts of the trip!

We ate out for lunch every day, and our goal was to eat someplace with a view. Most lunches were 15€ or less each, but sodas are expensive, 4-5€ for warm sodas (ice is rare) and no refills. Most of the time we’d have water and stop at a grocery for cold soda later.

My youngest son and I would sometimes split a meal, because portions were large and we couldn’t take leftover with us. Sometimes we’d order a side salad/soup in addition and that was plenty.

Sometimes we weren’t super hungry for dinner, so we’d grab a pretzel or snack instead. Grocery stores have pre-made options, and take-away places are everywhere. Sometimes we just had dessert for dinner!

Most restaurants have kids menus that are very reasonably priced. My 11 year old had no problem ordering from the kids menu.

By the end of the trip we were pretty sick of eating out all the time. Some nights you might just want go pick up sodas and a pizza to bring back to your hotel.

As for tours and incidentals, I would get an idea of what sights you want to see and make a list of the entry fees. The Nightwatchman’s tour in Rothenburg is great and cheap. You probably don’t need tours for the other cities (I do recommend a Highlands tour though). Rick has great walking tours in his books, and audio tours on the app. The castle in Edinburgh has free English tours. Most cities have free tours, or just explore on your own.

I agree with everyone else - don’t carry a ton of cash. ATMs are readily available, and credit cards are widely accepted. I would keep 100€ cash on hand, just in case you run into someplace that doesn’t take cash.

My younger son had a blast collecting keychains during the trip. Cheap and easily packable. My older son collected coffee mugs - not recommended! Thankfully they all survived, but they take up a lot of space!

Thanks, Brad. I don't have a background in banking, so I appreciate that warning.

I create a credit balance on my Chase credit card prior to travel and it worked out fine, although this was about 10 years ago.

I haven't done it since. You could always call your credit card company and ask if this would be a problem.

So this is really a budgeting question, not a how-to-pay-for-things question. Is that right?