Vegas/LA Spending Money

[Guest]

Panic is setting in, we go in about 11 weeks and I'm sat here at 2.20am worrying about spending money!

There's 4 of us going, 2 adults and 2 teenage boys 15 and 14.
We're in Vegas for 3 nights and LA for 9 nights.
We have a hire car.

I was hoping to have $250 per day, but it will most likely be around $200 per day...we've just had a very expensive back end of 2017 with my eldest daughter getting married, decorating and Christmas!

I know when we've been to Florida we've always had plenty around the $250 daily allowance, but really not sure about this with the rate not being so good.

My husband and I went to Vegas/LA for 5 days last year on our own and we spent £1500 but we did drink and gambled. We don't plan on drinking or gambling this time, if we do it will be very little as we have our children with us.

We have all passes bought Disney, Universal and Go Los Angeles Card so wont have to pay for anything except for essentials such as food and fuel.

I'm thinking that some days we may only spend $100 if we go to the likes of Mcdonalds for breakfast and dinner, which would then boost our daily allowance... this is how we did it in Florida, we would start off with a daily allowance of $250 and by day 5 or 6 it had increased to $340 per day.

Would love to hear your thoughts, someone please put my mind at rest.

[Guest]

Snap I go on weds and have been worrying all night about silly things 😱 x

[daytonababe]

We go yearly for 19 nights split between 9 nights Vegas , 3 Phoenix and the rest in LA .
4 adults pretty much ( kids are older teens ) and in total for shopping petrol and spends we spend about £3k a year but I could spend less .

However we eat virtually all our meals off the strip where it’s far far cheaper . A buffet for the 4 of us at say South Point is $65 ish at night it’s about $140 ish on the strip for a decent one.

LA we spend more on food than we do in Vegas though .

[Guest]

Hi daytonababe, thanks for that.

So would you say $200 per day is enough? We're not bothered about shopping on this trip, my sons will be but they have their own money set aside for that if they want to.

[landandword17]

I think you’ll be fine Gail. We came in under budget and found the food wasn’t as expensive as we had planned for. We had a few nice meals but we also had some really good cheap eats. The In n Out burger, Blaze pizza, Chipotle off the top of my head. The Farmers market in LA had loads of cheap options too. I usually avoid fast food at home because it upsets my stomach but the places I mentioned were good quality, no grease.

[400ixl]

If it is just money for food, fuel etc then that should be fine. As you say, just be sensible about where you eat, even on the strip you can get a decent meal for 4 for $100.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by landandword17

I think you’ll be fine Gail. We came in under budget and found the food wasn’t as expensive as we had planned for. We had a few nice meals but we also had some really good cheap eats. The In n Out burger, Blaze pizza, Chipotle off the top of my head. The Farmers market in LA had loads of cheap options too. I usually avoid fast food at home because it upsets my stomach but the places I mentioned were good quality, no grease.

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Thank you, I'm hearing a lot about this In n Out Burger, will definitely be checking that out. Last year I was obsessed with Bruxies and if I remember rightly it was very reasonable and the chicken and waffles were amazing!

[Guest]

Originally Posted by 400ixl

If it is just money for food, fuel etc then that should be fine. As you say, just be sensible about where you eat, even on the strip you can get a decent meal for 4 for $100.

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I know, I'm just such a worrier!
At the end of the day we go with what we've got, so it will have to be enough. My experience of Florida was you can spend as little or as much as you like. When we did Vegas and LA last year money didn't seem to last 5 minutes but that will be down to too much boozing and gambling which we aren't doing this time because of having our sons with us.

[daytonababe]

Originally Posted by gail35

Hi daytonababe, thanks for that.

So would you say $200 per day is enough? We're not bothered about shopping on this trip, my sons will be but they have their own money set aside for that if they want to.

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Yes if your not wanting 2 big meals each day on the strip .

Like I said a evening buffet can be $140 ish for 4 and a breakfast buffet $80.

On the other hand it costs us $22 for the 4 of us at In N Out burger .

Denny’s in Vegas and LA for breakfast is about $50

[Joosebug1987]

Hiya,

I would highly recommend the vegas explorer pass if on a budget for your time there - we found on days where we'd overspent on things that this was a godsend as the number of shows and attractions on it to pass the time were amazing and there is even food options. Can often get a discount code on it too.

smartdestinations/la...xp&allInc=true

We found we balanced like you say by the odd day splurging and some days saving. I did find a couple of places blew me away price wise - we had $10 dollar sugar free red bulls by accident one day as no bar list! I would recommend stopping at a store for some essentials (water etc) as will save you a fortune.x