au pair food budget while we are on vacation?

[Anonymous]

We are going on vacation for two weeks without our au pair, so she is getting this time off, in addition to her allotted two weeks of vacation which we allowed her to schedule at a time of her choosing. She will be staying in our house while we are gone, with a girlfriend from home who will be visiting and staying with her in our home while we are gone. We (of course) intend to pay for her food while we are gone, but don't want to just hand her a credit card, as she sometimes chooses expensive food, and as we also don't want to be paying for the friend's food. (We're very generous overall with lots of extras and perks and are putting this girl up for a week before we go and will be feeding her for that period of time.) So what we'd like to do is leave a certain amount of cash to cover the au pair's feeding while we are gone, with the idea that she and the friend should cover the cost of the friend's meals. What's a reasonable food allowance to cover cooking, not going out, either per day or overall for the two week period we're gone?

thanks!

[Anonymous]

Maybe something like $30/day? So, about $200/week?

[Anonymous]

$50-60 a week.

[Anonymous]

$50-70 a week, depending on how stocked your fridge/freezer/pantry is with staples.

[Anonymous]

$30 a day would feed my entire family, and my neighbors, too!

[Anonymous]

If you stock pasta, rice, bread (frozen) and have milk/yogurt in stock....plus random pantry items...I say $30/week

[Anonymous]

Essentially stock up on basics that won’t go off and give her 20 bucks or so per week for fresh fruits-veggies. I spent 40 today for the week on a family of 4 plus au pair (but hubs eats no produce!!)

[Anonymous]

Leave $200. That is more than enough. If she’s going out every night then she can use her own money

[Anonymous]

100-150 seems good

[Anonymous]

OP here. thanks all, super helpful!

[Anonymous]

We leave $100 a week in these instances.

[Anonymous]

Stock everything before you go, then leave $50 for fruit/veg the second week. Be prepared to shop when you get back!

[Anonymous]

Last year we left for a last-minute weekend -AP had a fully stocked kitchen so we left just $25 to be courteous. She really didn't need anything and she normally wasn't around for the weekends anyway. She bought cookies, potato chips and ice cream (she gave me the receipt), none of which were around when we got back. So, I vote for a stocked kitchen and not too much cash. I would be transparent about covering her meals and maybe ask her what she wants to cook while you're gone so you can pre-shop for her.

[Anonymous]

Leave well stocked refrig/pantry and $25 for second week produce re-fresh.

[Anonymous]

I don't stock the fridge when we leave au pair home - a lot of them end up going out and the food goes bad (of course there are non-perishables and drinks, but I don't purposely buy stuff just for her that could go bad ahead of time). I'd say ~$100/week would be fine and very generous.