The last time I went self catering, I took some stuff from home to help out. You can get supermarket own brand pasta thingys that you just add milk to for about 20p or so.

I just took a few of them, some noodles etc. Is quick and cheap for lunch.

We already have valid visas from June, (well I guess they are still valid???)

not sure about that,
i went twice in a month 2 years ago and still got charged the tenner the 2nd time,
pass on what the rules are with that, but the people who stamp your passport have never been the friendliest people ive met.

Korky

Visa is valid for 90 days, but if you go to visa counter and hand over your passport and £10 they will take your money again as they dont check passport for valid visa's they just add another visa.

you should have just gone through passport control.

A visa is valid for 90 days, so no probs there.
Korky, did you show passport control, the page with the visa stamp on it?
If you did, why did they charge you again?
denny

pass, but my g/f went in july, i went in early august and we went together in late august,
i did ask about the visa before we left, my g/f was adamant that we had to pay again as she'd been before twice in a short space of time, but i thought it was a swizz.
i'll blame her for not bugging the passport contollers but i doubt id get a tenner off her!
best thing is, she loves a scrap with the shop keepers and will fight tooth n nail to get a quid knocked off!

Going back to the original post a thousand for a vets bill a shotgun cartridge only cost 50p

I always take tea, coffee, powder milk and sugar when I go away. The first thing we do when we get there is look for a supermarket (migros, Tansas?) to stock up on snacks, sandwich fillers, light lunches, cartons of drink and sweets and stuff for the kids. This normally lasts us for the whole week and we don't have to worry about the extortionate prices that you sometimes have to pay in local shops.
Another thing that we like to do is is offer prizes to the person who can find the cheapest restaurant. Cheap dosen't always mean worst! My son (9) has become an expert at this 'game' and he looks very pleased with himself when he has found the cheapest (which he normally does)
We never have pudding in a restaurant. In Marmaris there some lovely patisseries with huge selections of cakes and puddings and they'll probably be a lot less less than any restaurant. We normally buy ours and sit by the beach to eat them.
Drinks by the pool? Yes we do have them occassionally but it is far cheaper just to pop into our apartment and have a drink there.
Eating out every night (with pudding), having a full breakfast 3 or 4 times a week, drinks by the pool, a few trips (such as Mud Baths or Turtle Beach) a bit of shopping, pop into icmeler, visit the castle, pedaloes etc makes for a wonderful holiday.
For 4 of us (2 adults and 2 children) we probably wouldn't need to spend more than £500 for the week . £600 if we were feeling particularly extravagant
It's up to you how you budget your money but I can have an excellent holiday with £500 for 4, other people would need more. Hope you have a lovely time

Going back to the original post a thousand for a vets bill a shotgun cartridge only cost 50p

but how much is the shotgun??

as for the essentials, a pack of pg tips, the sweeteners my g/f only likes, and a bottle of southern comfort for her,
as for the rest, i feel for the poster, but you cant possibly go away counting the pennies from day 1,
you go away to relax and forget home for a week or 2, face the cons when you get home

Poor you do try keep ringing insurance people some of them can be good about it are you with E & L if so when they do pay out you want to swap my vet will only take payment up front if we insured with E&L any other company he will claim direct from them and we pay our excess. I am with NFU and they are great I lost one of my horses in January and sent the relevant paperwork off on the Wed and received cheque the following Tue. Good luck I am sure you will be able to manage if you careful have a few drinks in your apt before you go out to save a bit.

If you are getting the money back from the pet insurance people would it not be possible to get an overdraft to cover the holiday spending and then pay it back once the insurance pays out? That's what I would do.

Hiya,

Just back from 2 weeks in Marmaris with my boyfriend.

Spent £900 in the two weeks, both ate out every night in by the harbour (where the restaurants were most expensive I found) and both had lunch every day (burger and chips usually). My boyfriend was drinking spirits which were quite expensive (15 lira) and he bought ALOT of stuff (Would say he spent about £300 at least on presents and stuff for himself).

So to be honest in Marmaris £500 for 2 weeks would be possible. Take noodles and stuff in your case and cook them for snacks (we did this with pot noodles) and possibly a few boxes of cereal (you could even get this over there in a supermarket). Buy the gallons of water and decant them into the smaller bottles to carry them about because we found most of our money went on buying 4 or 5 1 litre bottles of water a day. As for meals in the evening you will barely be charged anything for the baby and there are several places that do offers on their meals (seen them on boards as I was heading from hotel down to the waterfront).

edit: Just to add - if there is boat trips available go on a Lazy Day Cruise (we did it 3 times it was great!!) and on this its like £12 per adult and you will possibly get the child for free and you get your lunch on the boat and all your drinks included - great day out and really cheap day because you are away from 9:30am and don't get back until 5pm-ish and after that a light snack is all you want before bed!

Better to be on a budget in the sun than be on a budget at home!!

Hi Helen, hope you can manage to sort something out, im already panicking about going away in october... so i can imagine how you are feeling.
I always take several packets of super noodles etc, its best to always have something to fall back on in an emergencie!

goodluck.

clare.

Helen it can be done,and still have a great holiday,take some cheese and butter with you,I also took tins corn beef,buy some of that georgous bread and a few tomatoes that are so cheap over there and you can eat out every night.We bought large bottles of cola at the supermarkets over there,ie Tansas,for 2 lira if you like a drink,get duty frees going out and have a few drinks before going out of an evening,we also bought eggs,great for omelettes.

If you are getting your money back through insurance, then would it do any harm to use your overdraft they pay it back with you get your insurance money? Just a thought?

Having lived in turkey for a few years I know you can very easily get by on that if you are self catering, you don't need to take anything with you you can get everythign you need in the big supermarkets.. You can get bread, eggs, cheese, salald, chicken, fish etc to cook at home, plus drinks. Also if you eat out at small local kind of restaurants you can eat very cheaply; pide, chicken in half bread, durum, lahmaucun etc are very cheap.

Where are you going?

I forgot to say that the best thing with regards water is to get one of the very big bottles, the cost about 5ytl, you can then refill smaller ones to use every day - that will save quite a bit.

Kedi

visa,s only last for 3 months

Icmeler. My visa is less then 3 months old- I got one on 8th June??
I think I will go and see how I get on. If worst comes to worse I will eat bread and butter 24/7!!!

I'm on a budget this year and always seem to be. If i'm lucky I'll have £1,000 for 2 adults, and 16 and 12 year old when we go in August that will just about last I think. We wont be able to afford any trips. I'm planning on being frugle.

I've been saving for building work and need to find more money for that so know the feeling about being stretched.

Some suggestions:
If the apartment has a toaster thats a bonus, I also have those JML toaster bags they do very nice toasties. So take a big block of cheese with you and relevant butter. Take T bags, carton long life milk to help set you off. Jam, Marmite or spread as other suggestions.

Bacon and sausages maybe 2lbs of each (put in suitcase) that should last you a week for breakkies. Some booze perhaps from duty free, then take a small plastic bottle with you and you can smuggle some booze in your bag when you go out at night so one drink could be made stronger as you wish. Also I take the odd can of fizzy drink out as well and top up as necessary, it is possible to do it discretely.

Also in regards to money making, have a look to sell some stuff on EBay, if you have chance do a car boot if you have one locally.

Also try pawn brokers for any old scrap gold, e.g broken ear rings, bracelets (i got £120 after clearing out a lot of my old broken earrings and cheapish pendants that are 20 years or so.) Also the Cash Generator / Cash Collector shops give you money for items such as old digital cameras and also jewellery. Plus you can set up an account and cash cheques with them these are pay day advances.

Perhaps eat out at the takeaways rather than the restaurants or the Lokanta's or even go to the chippy the odd time. In Icmeler there's one in the centre and the travellers rest do takeouts as well. Owned by the same lady.

Hope that helps. I'l be doing the same.