Spending money - how much

[Greedyfly]

We are going to New York next summer for a week. Minus hotel and flight costs how much spending money do you think we would use. Obviously we will be doing some of the touristy things, we plan to eat cheaply most of the time. Maybe to a restaurant once or twice and the average shopping. We are fairly sensible with money and will keep close tabs on what we are spending. I have no idea how much to save before we go or how much we are likely to burn through when we get there do any hints/tips and advice would be great. Thanks.

[237SJ]

There`s an fao for you in Chatterbank regarding your previous questions. Sorry, I thought you were going this summer.
New York`s not cheap. I eat out of delis and a meal in a plastic take away container will cost you about $9 or $10 dollars. Shopping`s cheaper than the UK though. Of course, everybody expects a tip. We were landed with a 20% service charge the other night for our drinks. We were a large group though and sometimes they wack up the percentage for large groups. If you go for drinks in a bar where you go up and order, keep a tab and tip at the end. Otherwise they will expect $1 every time they serve you.

[spudqueen]

When I have been I have worked on spending $100 a day. It may sound a lot, but eating out three times a day, even cheaply, costs money. Then there is the cost of admission to places eg Empire State Building, Metropolitan Museum of Art etc, plus some shopping money. I think I did overspend though as I remember drawing some money out of a cash machine, another $100 as I recall.

[jno]

don't forget they add sales tax onto the prices on the tickets.

As for how much, how long is a piece of string. You can get stuff rather cheaper than here so it would make sense to buy things you want while you're there. What costs you £1 here would probably cost you $1 there, as a rule of thumb.

$100 a day as spudqueen suggests sounds reasonable.