Daily budget in Vanuatu???

Hi guys, I am based in Sydney, and looking at going to Vanuatu for three weeks next year, with most of the time being spent on Santo (I'm a diver) and Tanna (everyone says its awesome!), but as I am a humble backpacker I am on a rather tight budget. I understand the flights are expensive, but if I was to stay in the cheapest places possible and eat the local food, how much should I expect to pay each day? Just to give you an idea, I was in South East Asia before this, which is obviously cheaper, but I was getting by on about US$20 per day, plus dives etc - is US$30-40 reasonable?
Hope you can help, thanks a lot.
Rob

is US$30-40 reasonable?

Yes, but without the diving, of course.
And staying at the cheapest places.

Hi,

Well we booked our trip in Feb this year for $1000, which includes return airfares, accomodaiton, transfers and continental breakfast at The Melanesian Port Vila. I'm moreso budgeting for the cost of leisure, food (we might do abit of cooking ourselves in the hotel) and souvernirs.

I went on a twelve day trip in 2005 to Santo with a night in Port Villa on the way home. I spent no more than $3000AUD total, I mean taxi to the airport, airfares, accomodation, dives (2 a day), meals (brekky with acom), cava, gifts for loved ones, duty free at the airport home, everything! I wasn't even on a strict budget - I found Vanuatu very cost effective...

My only advice is that if you can, skip the Million Dollar Reef dives and get more on the Coolidge. Million Dollar is semi-interesting, but I regret not having those extra two dives on the Coolidge. I have done at least 200 recreational dives since Vanuatu, in Fiji, Lizard Island, Brasil, the Caribbean, etc and nothing compares to that wreck!

Enjoy!

I've not been to Santo, nor do I dive, so I can't comment on that. On Tanna I spent about 2000 vatu on accomodation a night. It was rather basic though, no electricity, though they did have a (cold) shower. Food set me back another 1500 a day. If I recall correctly admission to the volcano is about 2250 vatu the first time, half the 2nd, and free after that. Having someone drop you off at the volcano costs about a 1000 vatu. Theres tons of other stuff to do like custom dancing, visit a Jon Frum ceremony, or drive to Port Resolution and spend a day on the beach. All of these activities will cost you about 1-2000 vatu each. Flying there from Vila was somewhere around 22-24000 vatu (I forget) but I'd book as soon as you get in as the Tanna flight are usually full. That is, they say theyre full, because when you show up there's always like 4 seats free.
Not quite sure what the rate vatu-aussie$ is, might be around $AU1=100 vatu, but best to google/xe that. The thing with Vanuatu in general is everything is quite reasonably priced, but it all adds up, and you end up spending a bumload of cash. Best money spent in awhile though as I thouroughly enjoyed it there.