Spending Money ~ 6 Yr Old?

[DISLOVE]

How do you handle spending money and the endless requests for "stuff" while you are on vacation at WDW? My daughter is going to want things but I'm not sure how to handle it so that we don't spend the whole trip shopping!

What has worked for you?

 

[dawnbu40]

I have always found that my DD spends more carefully when its "her" money. Having her own money made her more thoughtful when choosing so we learned early on to purchase her either visa/mastercard gift cards or Disney ones and we'd tell her how much she had to spend. She learned how to budget, how to prioritize her wants and the consequences of when you spend all your money. We started this when she was about your DDs age but prior to that we would tell her she could get one thing at each park we visited. We always encouraged her to hold off til the end of the day to make sure she got what she really wanted.

 

[scottish mum]

Set her a limit. We did this with our kids and one of them was 6 and understood it fine. We told them how much they had. They had $200 for 2 weeks. If he wanted something we reminded him it was his money, sometimes he would still buy it other times not (its amazing the things they won't spend their money on but not give a second thought if its mums money) . We didn't giv ehim the actual money we just paid for whatever and at the end of everyday we would subtract how much he had spent. We kept it on a notebook and he could see his money going down so understood what he had left. This way I didn't have to carry his money with me and there was also no worries about him losing it. My just turned 4yr old daughter caught on with this idea too and would ask if she had enough money left to buy something.

 

[la79al]

DSD was barely 6 when we took our last trip. She had a certain amount of spending money and we told her that we were not buying anything right away, she had to look and decide what she wanted. Well she picked out a baby Tinkerbell the very first day we were there and we told her to keep looking because we weren't buying yet. When we finally did buy, she still wanted the Tinkerbell and picked out 2 magnets too. I think it helps that a lot of the stores have the same things. We did a lot of 'if you get that you will only have X amount of money left'. It seemed to make her really think about what she was buying.

 

[kristinw3girls]

We have always given my girls a baggie w/ their name on it. In the baggie I keep their money. I have no rules about what they can buy with their $, however, once it's gone, it's gone. They seemed to be really thoughtful about each purchase (even my 5 yo). None of them spent it all on day one (I was surprised )!! If we were at a cash register and I decided to pay for the item, I just told them to put their $ away. I didn't get the old "are you buying this or am I?". I mean really, they want way more junk when I'm buying then they want when they are buying!!! Each one of my girls ALWAYS come home with some $ left! Have fun!!

 

[mom2travel]

Once they could add and subtract on their own we told them how much spending money they had to shop with for the entire vacation. They were allowed to make their own choices. Kids are much thriftier spenders when it is their own cash!

Before they could do the math in their heads, we put the money in a ziploc baggie so they could see how much was there. We explained at the beginning how much total, and how much would be gone if they purchased what they were looking at (with some "if you buy this, then you have that much left" and gave examples of what might be bought with the remainder (a t-shirt/doll/piece of candy, etc))

 

[mjkacmom]

All of my kids got gc's before we went, and that was their spending money ($25 - I'm not a fan of souveniers).

 

[Perditamarie]

I would recommend to decide as a family:

* What kind of souvenir sounds good -- a toy, doll, charm bracelet, hat, etc so you can be on the lookout for a special something instead of overwhelmed by everything.

* Decide when you will buy things...at the end of the trip or day, or whatever you decide. If you want a special character item, it may not be available at another location (ie: villians, AK stuff) so grab it when you see it or make sure you will return to that location.

* Don't go to DTD until you are ready to buy...it is fantastic store after fantastic store!

* Look for quality - we have found that a lot of the toys are really junky and fall apart/don't work. We like stuffed animals, hats, potato parts, etc. The playsets will disappoint!

* We found that Tinkerbell gifts, where Tink will leave a little treat overnight or when we are out of the room, are a fun surprise, but didn't work for to cure the urge to shop n spend. It just makes for more stuff!

 

[jbdisneymom13]

My DS turned 6 two weeks before we arrived for a trip in late Dec. His biggest temptation came from being dumped into a gift shop at the end of every ride. As suggested in the earlier posts here, he had his own money to spend in a baggie and when it was gone, it was gone. He still had many temptations though. One thing that helped was we had told both our kids (DD age 11 also) that we had scheduled one afternoon late in the trip for shopping at DTD. I had even showed them info about DTD before the trip and they knew that they could get practically anything they wanted there. My DD was content to wait but DS was still tempted at times. It really helped him not focus on the gift shop we were dropped into when we discussed the plan for what we were going to do after a particular ride while we were waiting in line. Then, as we exited the ride and approached the inevitable gift shop, I reminded him of where he was going next and what he wanted to see there to get him motivated to keep on walking and ignore the potential shopping. There were still two times he just couldn't resist (a sword after Pirates and a Viking hat at Epcot) but he has had great fun pretending with both many times since the trip - so I guess an impulse buy once in awhile is ok!

 

[ColoradoLime]

My DD is 6 as well. I told her I would not be buying her anything while we were at Disney. But I would give her an allowance of $5 a week toward Disney money if she started doing chores.

We bought a chore chart (found a Mickey one!) and she has a weekly goal of the number of check marks she has to get in order to earn the $5. We give her credit for not just chores, but brushing her teeth, taking her vitamin, doing homework, using manners, etc.

We've been doing this for 1 month now and its working great. I even caught her making her bed one morning! She loves helping me with dinner and the dishes and doing laundry. It's been a win win for both of us!

 

[wishtdream]

My 6 yo daughter gets $50 to spend per 4 days of vacation. That number has been the same for the last 3 years. But there are some rules. We use the same rules for all destinations. She leaves the gimmes home.

1. No food ( I provide meals, snacks and consumable treats as I see fit.)
2. We never buy anything on vacation that mom can get at home.
3. If Walmart or Target sells it it is not a souvenir.
4. If you run out of money you are done shopping.

We do allow her to carry over money from the first 4 days to the next 4, but she can't borrow what she doesn't have yet.

She almost always comes home with most of the spending money alloted for the trip.

I always buy each child at least 1 thing I think they want at the end of the trip. I don't discuss it with them before I make the purchase. ( we bring gifts home for nieces and nephews, its only fair we buy for our own too.)

 

[GreyGooseCosmo]

My DD had the possibility to earn $65 for the trip to spend on whatever she wanted. Every morning, I give her a homemade "Dollar For Disney" and she puts it in her envelope (I'm an avid scrapbooker, so I made her one).

If she gets in trouble at school, or gets punished more than the cursory "Mommy said stop that" ... she has to pay me a dollar from her stash. If she forgets her homework, she has to pay me a dollar. Basically, I take money from her like a "fine" if she does wrong. It's REALLY made an impact!

So far, she's only down $5. That's pretty impressive for a 6-year-old. I figure she'll likely end up with about $50 total.

 

[princesspiglet]

DD saves up her chore money and I also give her some to spend. This year she has a little over $200 to spend for 8 days. She is pretty good at adding and subtracting, so she understands how much she has left and such. She's pretty thrifty when it is her own money and usually waits until the end before deciding on anything. We help her with explaining how much she would have left is she spent so much, etc. We like to give her limits on what to buy though. No food items and no junk toys.

 

[msmayor]

When our kids were little, we told them they could get up to $25 worth of souvenirs...didn't matter how many things, as long as the total wasn't more than $25.

We told them, though, that all souvenirs were purchased on our LAST full day. This meant that throughout the week, they could browse the shops to really see everything available to them. Most of the items are available all over; even at Downtown Disney. We'd keep track of prices of things they really liked, and by the last day they were ready to make their purchases.

This avoided impulse buying, and purchasing something earlier in the week and then finding something they liked BETTER, but now didn't have enough money for it.

 

[tami82]

Well i havent been before with my kids but i have started planning since last year. I bought custom made princess dresses, mickey ears, stuff for goodey bags, lanyards that hold water bottles, and pins. Maybe this will be a bit of a solution for you.
anything else i may find between now & August i will just put aside for them. Im not sure how i am going to break it down as far as when i will give them the stuff. I heard some people say they buy stuff ahead of time and give their kids one thing every night from Tinkerbell or whichever character.
Another thing let her save her money up. My 6 year old saves up money from holidays, birthdays, chores and understands that the money will be saved for whatever she likes during vacation. She usually winds up with a good amount of cash for someone her age.

 

[mommyof3rookies]

When we took our boys, they got 1 thing from each park at the END of the day. That's how we're doing it again this time. We did not include their mickey ears in this, those are a MUST Have .