Scotland Travel Forum

Hey!

We're two young girls (21&22) taking a trip to Scotland in March 2010 from Canada and the USA! Right now we're trying to work out our budget, but costs seem to fluctuate quite a bit from region to region, city to town.

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on the costs of things in smaller cities AND large cities. I'm mainly looking at things like
-food from a grocery story
-cafe/fast food
-alcohol/beer

It's easy enough to budget money for transportation, accommodation and then any major sight seeing activities you want to do, but I have no idea if there is cover charge for pubs or night life... or if drinking there is expensive. We want to be frugal, so we'll be getting a lot of our food from grocery stores. Water, bread, etc.

THANKS!

Hi girls,

The only difference in costs you are likely to find is with your grocery shopping. The larger stores such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda & Morrison's will be cheaper than smaller grocery stores such as Spar & Londis. So it's not so much the size of the city as the size of the store. With regards to drinking in coffee shops or bars there should be little difference in prices whether you are in large cities like Edinburgh & Glasgow or smaller places like Stirling or Falkirk. ( with the exception of some upper crust wine bars ) Some nightclubs will charge entrance fees of £5-£10 but if you want to be frugal you can have just as much fun in bars such as Wetherspoons or Yates.

www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk
www.weareyates.co.uk
www.visitscotland.com
www.scotland.com/cities

Have a lovely time,
Darren.

Hey, thanks for your answer! Just trying to find the names of grocery stores in the UK was going to confuse me!

Can you tell me the average costs for things such as water, basic food (from the grocery store) and beer/alcohol at pubs and or clubs. We're not big on nightclubs and can't much afford the cover charge on a nightly basis, but we may go once or twice. We're definitely laid back and more interested in taking in the local pub scene at the end of the day!

Questions, questions...

answers, answers....

alcohol - in s-market wine will cost £5-6 for something drinkable; less for plonk. Beer - well if you're willing to bulk buy and drink anything, supermarkets sell very cheap, but decent beer (say Czech Budweiser) would be £1.50 - £2 for 0.5 litre. In a pub, beer will be £2.50 - £3 per pint. More in "fancy" places. No cover charge for pubs, but there will be for night clubs.

food - Burger King meal deals will be £5-6 typically. Pub I was in last night offered soup & toasted sandwich for £3.99.

s-market - 1 pint organic milk £0.53. 6 large organic free range eggs £1.47. Lettuce £1. Pack cherry tomatoes £0.87. Baguette £0.79. Don't buy water. You shouldn't either. Tap water is better than what they put in bottles (good enough to make malt whisky with, so why buy something in a plastic bottle that's been shipped from France, Wales or the other side of the hills).

All the supermarkets Darren mentioned offer online shopping, so if you google them you will be able to find typical prices for what you're likely to buy. As you'll gather I buy lots of organic stuff which makes life more expensive, but stops me glowing in the dark.

Online prices will not be the same as in store, but the difference will be a few pence.

A loaf of wholewheat bread in a supermarket will be anywhere from .87p to £1.50 but there are often deals i.e. two for the price of one, or two for slightly more than the cost of one. There are often specials on wine and you can buy something extremely drinkable for £4. Or you could buy a box of wine (3 liters) with a dispenser tap on it, and this often works out much cheaper than buying four bottles. Yoghurts are about .49p each or four for £1.50 but again, there are specials. A big "bag" of bananas (about 10 or so) in Morrisons costs £1.29. A 2 liter bottle of milk from Farmfoods costs £1. Both Farmfoods and Iceland offer good prices on dry goods as well as frozen things. As well as the grocery stores already mentioned, there's also Lidl and Aldi.
Just a pointer, the time of year you are intending to be here means that you will probably spend more on food and drink. In addition, it will be chilly and you will want to warm up and you won't be able to buy sandwich fixings and eat in a park. The cold here is damp and you may be used to minus 34 but that is a dry cold and believe you me, that's nothing compared to 2 degrees and damp! The cold is penetrating, especially along the east coast. Layers is/are the best - a German friend of mine said "dress like an onion and be prepared to peel"!

Just to make it clear.....costs in the UK do not vary from country to country although some prices (beer in pubs for exmple) are a little higher in the south. Prices do not vary bewteen small town and large city, although smaller villages with perhaps only one shop are alays more expensive, of course.

It is always more expensive to drink in pubs than to buy drink from supermarkets etc.

There is no cover charge in pubs. You do not tip the barstaff. In fact, you do not need to tip anyone in the UK anywehere unless you want to. It is not expected.

You can drink tap water everywhere. Buy one small bottle, then refill it from the tap. It is much greener to do this as well.

Hi - firstly, I'd like to say I think this is a really sensible question - one that is really making use of local knowledge and one I wish I could be more help with.

Secondly, I can perhaps best help with ways to save money and get the most out of a visit, without sacrificing enjoyment.

The prices here in Orkney (Islands) are notoriously higher than in Mainland Scotland, so my shopping basket is not representative. Also, I too buy very selectively, ie I don't buy bread, or alcohol, nor do I visit pubs. :)

Who knows where the economy or exchange rates will be by Spring 2010, but your research is smart and should also be fascinating.

Bear in mind the quality of the food you buy - and also look out for the discounted items in supermarkets - often will yellow labels, near the sell by date and reduced in price for a quick sale.

There are lots of money saving tips - like refilling bottles from taps (Leics) which will help you. Perhaps the biggest tips I can give here are related to accommodation and food:
If you stay in hostels you can cook food in the self-catering kitchens - saving you a ton of money and potentially improving your diet (if you can cook).
If you stay in host houses, you can cook there too - see www.couchsurfing.com

My page on accommodation has the web links for you to explore:
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/70ef2/f8/3/

If you buy food "on the go", like sandwiches pre-made, bags of salad, bottled water or soda, you will end up feeling ill and short of money. So yes buy loaves of bread, raw vegetables, fruit in season, reduced price perishables, drink (free) tapwater, and then treat yourself to good quality beer or a cafe session.

One tip my wife is making (over my shoulder) is always make sure you have some food with you, so you are never so hungry to buy spontaniously, say when on a train or ferry. Having a packet of nuts, oatcakes, maybe even boiled eggs and some carrots is a great way to be frugal and stay on track with a budget. It also allows you to be more relaxed about shopping and to hunt for bargains / reduced items - and to walk away if nothing is good.

Hello - here is another tip for saving money when here -

We drink tea, so when travelling we carry the teas we like (nice and light weight) and when in a cafe or on a train (buffet food service, or food trolley) or even an aeroplane, we ask for hot water. This is generally not charged for! We have our own cup / mug, which helps. We thus often get our hot drink of tea for the price of the tea (about 5 pence). The price of the tea if purchased is likely to be over £1.00 but also the quality and choice is very limited - this way we have our favourites.

:)

Eggs are really nutritious, so boil up some eggs before you set off for the day and you have good, filling protein when you need it. You can buy freerange eggs for £1 / half dozen, from local houses in rural areas.

You can sprout your own seeds whilst on the move - I grow organic alfalfa seeds in my kitchen or bag when travelling - really healthy and nutritious for just a few pence (because the tap water is clean). I have a round ice-cream tub with holes in the lid to rinse and drain the sprouts (twice a day) and after 2-5 days they are fresh and tasty! Beats buying salad!

If you come up this way, I'll teach you some wild plants you can eat for free too - if you really want to have fun.

Always have a look in the "free food" box in hostel kitchens - where guests leave unwanted foods - nearly always some pasta, salt, oil and other wierd items there. A bit of a lucky dip but useful. Note too that the hostels nearly always now provide tea, coffee, cooking oil, salt, herbs etc for free. That makes a big difference!

A hostel is typically £12 - £15 / per night, including use of all facilities, bedding, kitchen, showers etc. Internet and clothes washing would normally be extra.

That is all to say you can set realistic budgets to suit your finances, and if things get tight, you can do some smart economising without going into debt.

Write me if you want more info.

Thanks so much for all the wonderful answers. This helps me out entirely and now I can actually look into making a daily budget. I should have posed this question to the general UK and Ireland, but this helps soooooo much! To be honest, it's a bit cheaper than what I had anticipated so that definitely makes me happy!

Thanks! =)

My wife and I were in the U.K. in 2003 and found fast food and grocery-store food to be quite a bit more expensive than in the U.S. So, you might want to add 25% to U.S. prices.

Yea, US prices are quite a bit cheaper in general. I'm from the province of Alberta up in Canada and the city I live in is REALLY expensive, so I'm used to it. A fast food meal is about 8dollars if not more.

Apart from the cheapest of cheap Macdonalds etc (not that I would ever eat one, I'm going by the adverts) 4CAD is about what you'd pay for a fast-food meal here. Fish & chips is around 4GBP, for example (varies across the country, more in London).

But fast-food is not the cheapest way to eat, of course. Cooking for yourselves is. Try to book hostels with kitchen facilities.

A food and travel related tip :)

"Variety is the spice of life"

Eat as varied a diet as possible, instead of relying upon just cheap calories.

Aye, one factor in why some of the less well off in the UK are overweight, - the calories in nutritionally deprived foods - fatty, salty, sweet and convenient but just bulk fillers with addictive ingredients. Even the salad and veggies are lower on nutrients than they used to be - so it takes effort to feed the body and brain.

Mind you, you will see this in Canada too.

My brain is dancing - thanks to the wild plants I have been eating - packed full of nutrients.