Trip to Poland this summer - how much spending money to bring???

Going to Poland for two months this summer in the Rzeszow area. Already have housing at no cost, it's with a relative. I'm wondering about how much spending money (food, buses, etc) should I bring. Mostly I will be cooking myself and using the bus for transportation. I'm wondering what's the minimum I would need for spending, not including trips or extra stuff like shopping? Basically I want to know the cost of everyday living as a local not as a tourist so I can decided properly how much to bring for that and then I'll take extra for everything else. Thanks!

I guess if you're frugal then 300-400USD per month will suffice, especially if you like to cook ;). Buses/public transportation is cheap; the most expensive would be food.

Thanks 🙂 I can't say I'm frugal but everything I've been seeing in other threads is including going to restaurants daily and other tourist stuff so I wanted to find the bare minimum so I can figure out a happy medium between the two. I will be cooking for myself more often than not, and while I used to go every few years it's now been almost a decade since my last visit and I just can't remember how much I used to bring. Plus it's been a decade so everything pricewise is different I'm sure.

Oh, also do you know a the website for bus transportation? I tried a Google search but couldn't find the actual bus site for the main bus station in Rzeszow.

20zl per day. Some experienced players spend 5zł per day.

You don't say if you are travelling locally within Rzeszów or not.
If you are travelling outside the area, then try this one:-

en.e-podroznik.pl

MPK seems to be the bus company operating within Rzeszów. Their contact details will be online somewhere. You could also try this site:-

rzeszow.jakdojade.pl

that's too much i think, I used to live in Poznan and I spent around 400 dollars per month for everything, I used to go out a lot and buy drinks in pubs and bars , pay rent (a medium apartment shared with another person) and cook food and sometimes eat out or order delivery.

from my experience you need around 300-400 zloty (75-100 USD) for food per month if you only cook (and I always had at least 250g of meat in my main meal),

the transportation in rzeszów according to the website is 70 zloty per month (17.5 USD)

I would recommend you to travel around Poland, there are many interesting places and cities to visit, and if your relative doesn't cook traditional polish food I would recommend you to search for a traditional polish restaurant, restaurants in Poland are cheap (you can easily drink and eat well for 7-10 dollars)

We are planning on going to Zakopane for a week as well as travel around here and there outside of visiting family, but I couldn't figure out the day to day budget as it has been quite a while since my last trip. This will be my 9th visit I just haven't been back in ten years and it will be the 1st time my kids are there since they were too small to go until now.

Thank you to everyone for commenting, it was a huge help!

I also want to thank everyone as it has been a huge help in my planning also.
I was planning on way more then that.
My air ticket is free as I have more than enough free air miles banked.
Lodging in nice hotels for a month $1500 USD.
Eating good food per day I was figuring about $30 or $900 for the month.
(What are the tipping standards in Poland restaurants ? They are 20% here in the U.S.A.)
To rent a car for a month would be another $400 plus petro.
So I was figuring if I had $3000 on my debit card and another 6 or 8 hundred pocket money I should be o.k.
As wealthy as Ziemowit is, I could always count on him to float me a loan until I got back home if I needed more.

I welcome opinions where I may be off on my guesstimations.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Have you looked into Air BnB? If you want a hotel then it wouldn't be for you, but I would find myself a bit stir crazy in a hotel room for a whole month. With the Air BnB, you would probably spend a lot less than $1500 and it would be like having your own wee flat, they normally offer discounts for longer stays too.

I was just looking at the bus transportation website, thank you Chemikiem, and was just wondering . . . . . Is it better to get a monthly bus pass or just pay as you go? I'll be traveling up to an hour away in various directions with Rzeszow being the starting point on any given day.

Afraid I can't help you with that as I don't live in Poland, I've just used those sites myself for travel when I have been there.

Logically it would make sense that a monthly pass would be cheaper, but that depends on whether you will be travelling often enough to justify the cost. Also, I'm not sure if a monthly pass would cover travel in varying directions as you want to do, it might only cover travel for designated routes, or within a certain area such as Rzeszów itself for example.

Try and get in contact with the MPK bus company, they should be able to give you details of costs and routes.

Thank you so much my friend.
I will research these, thanks to you.
When I was young like you I had a left knee and a right knee.
Now at my age things change and I now have a good knee and a bad knee so I require a very good bed to sleep in and an endless hot shower.

If I have those two things I am all set for the day.
The ultimate would be to find a honest native Polish person to travel with who knows the ropes and roads throughout Poland.
Of course hit the highlights in Warsaw and then off to the country sides visiting Cracow area where my ancestors came from.
I plan on stopping to meet Ziemowit and dolnaslask as they have been more then polite to me.
I highly respect you both.
Then just before I leave I plan on meeting up to visit his friend who lives next to the zoo in Poznan for a kick ass good time. ;-)

Thanks again Cardno85, you have been most helpful.