How much spending money for kids?

[Jedimom]

Since our trip is a month after Christmas, I'm planning on giving the kids each a Disney gift card for Christmas. No clue on the amount. They each already have $10 or $15 from birthdays, so trying to determine how much more is appropriate without going overboard.

How old are your kids, how much have they spent on past trips, and what sort of things did they purchase?

[mimmi]

How long will the vacation be? My daughter gets a set set amount of money- or a gift card for Disney trips- for each vacation, as we've found out that this approach is way more relaxing than her whining for things she'd like to have.
Three weeks ago we spent 6 days at WDW and gave her USD 60 and my father gave her another USD 10.
For our Disney cruise in February (7 days) I've bought her a USD 50 giftcard for christmas, as she will be doing BBB on board as well.

Forgot to add: she is 9 years old.

[Kbendig]

On our last trip we have our DS a $25 gc to spend on whatever he wanted. He got a Jake and the Neverland Pirates sword and a Disney Rubix Cube, we ended up paying about $5 extra for it but he wanted that RC every time he saw it in every store we went in so I felt comfortable paying more for what he really wanted. However, he knew the card limit and almost put it back cause it was too much money.

During the week he also got a toy transportation bus (he was sick so I went to grab him something to play with in the room), a lego toy, and a pillow pet that I wanted and we decided to share.

He also did the Pirate's League so he got some stuff from there.

He is 5, we are planning a trip for when he is 7 and I am thinking the gc will be $50 for that trip. That will give him a little more leeway.

[RevKjb]

Originally Posted by Jedimom

Since our trip is a month after Christmas, I'm planning on giving the kids each a Disney gift card for Christmas. No clue on the amount. They each already have $10 or $15 from birthdays, so trying to determine how much more is appropriate without going overboard.

How old are your kids, how much have they spent on past trips, and what sort of things did they purchase?

DD 9 and DS 11 have been saving allowances, birthday money, etc... And have converted it from Cdn to US dollars. For our upcoming 8 day trip (in 9days) they are taking $200 each. They can buy what they want. DD is considering BBB for a makeover. That'll take care of her money. DS will make LEGO richer.

[phins_jazy]

I have 3 kiddos. My 13 year old will probably have have $100 and my 8 and 5 year old will probably have $50 each. Heck I am only taking $100 for myself!

[pookybean]

for my 2 older kids (17 and 12) i give them $10 per day on a gift card. we also save all spare change and they will split that after we turn it in. this year they each also got a disney gift card for their birthdays and will also get one for christmas (from their aunts). my dd has also been saving up here and there so she will probably have another $10.

this is waaaay more than they usually have with the birthday and christmas money added in.

for my 4 y/o i just buy her little things here and there. her tastes arent too expensive yet and she is pretty good about not begging for stuff all the time.

i found that once i started giving them all the money on the gift cards (i used to dole it out day by day our first couple of trips) they made better choices and bought things of greater substance. my dd bought some pj's and always picks a pearl. one year she got twins and had them set in earings. my son loves japan and bought himself a noodle bowl set, chopsticks and fancy tea cups and then some green tea. he uses the bowl and chopsticks every time he eat ramen lol!

[SgtsWifeandmommyof4]

Our older boys (10 & 9) and Daughter (4) will have a $50 GC in their Disney surprise bags. My mom knows about the trip (kids don't) and she is giving our older boys $50 cash for Christmas as their gift this year. She is telling them its to help start saving for Disney. lol Little do they know, HA!

Older boys (10 & 9) - $100 ea
Daughter (4) - $50 GC
Baby boy (1) - Mommy will get a few things here and there. No more than $50 though.

When its gone, its gone. Mine need to learn how to manage money. They have done great in the past but this will be their first time in Disney. So many temptations! lol

[Swirly girls]

Originally Posted by phins_jazy

I have 3 kiddos. My 13 year old will probably have have $100 and my 8 and 5 year old will probably have $50 each. Heck I am only taking $100 for myself!

Wow! I need to learn from you.... We spent an average of about $200 a day while we were there last time! I can't help it I love everything I see! I'm worse than my kids are!

[DisneyRegulars]

My son was 2.5 last trip. We let him pick 2 things our last trip. He chose a giant minnie mouse for around $28.
His second choice was the biggest daisy duck he could find for $15 or so.

[Eoywin]

We are going to set a limit for DD - probably $100 since the trip is also for her birthday. I will be buying her ears and that won't count towards that total.

[Jedimom]

Thanks for the feedback! I'm liking the $10/day idea. Also liking the idea of having them pay for their own snacks (at least some of them). Thanks again!!

[jmarsh]

I am planning on giving my DD10 100$ to spend on a 3 day cruise and 2 day WDW trip. She will also probably bring some of her own money.

[Happyjen27]

I think it depends on your kids. Mine aren't shoppers. They are 5 year old girl and 5 year old boy.

We just got back, and the girl bought Mickey Ears (27 bucks) and a balloon ($15).

DS bought a pin ($9), and a balloon ($15) and a buzz lightyear car (7).

I paid for all the food and BBB. We never said "no" to anything, they just aren't demanding "I want, I want, I want" kids. Yet.

[Keegansmommy]

Usually we use our Disney Reward Dollars from our Visa for souveniers but we just went in April so we don't have much saved on there. All our dream dollars will be used for tips. Our kids (ages 3 and 5) each had $25 in their piggy banks and we sold some toys they no longer played with so they each got an additional $25 in Disney gift cards. They'll each have $50 unless my inlaws got them gift cards for Christmas (which I dobut). This is more than enough! They get to pick out whatever they want. Last trip mommy and daddy bought another box of Mr. Potato Head parts just because they're fun.

It really helped my oldest though with his case of "I want everything!" He really thought long and hard about what he was going to buy when I'd say, "It's fine if you want that, BUT...you'll only have ____ amount of money left."

[crystalanne79]

my kids were 4 and 7 and they each had $100 for our 3 day trip. They each had to pay for their own treats if they wanted any and then they picked whatever toys/souvenirs they wanted. Myself I limited to $20 however