Who has the money for Disney souvenirs?

[mermaidblue!]

Here's how I avoided spending a single dime on souvenirs!

1) When relatives kindly asked what the girls (5 & 10) wanted for b-days and Christmas, we stressed how much they'd love a Disney gift card. This was a godsend!

2) Sounds corny, but I gave the kids an empty bucket to save pennies in. Grandma & Grandpa heard about it and gave them a big jar of change they had laying around. Many months later, they had scraped together around $80!

With very little effort, the girls each had $100 for Disney. We were super clear that they had to pay for their own souvenirs, and they were very lucky little girls to visit Disney World. This worked for them. No whining!

Visited WDW for 5 days and my youngest was able to spend $20 every day in a gift shop buying her favorite stuffed animals, which are her obsession. The oldest loved the luxury of buying stuff everywhere she went. It was fantastic and stress free!

 

[Fantasmic23]

Admittedly, I never seem to remember to budget for souvenirs. It's the one aspect that I always blank on during the trip-planning stages. Souvenirs have become almost an after-thought to me: "Oh, yeah! Souvenirs."

On our last trip to WDW in late November, my sister and one of my uncles generously gave my kids some spending money for Disney. We usually save souvenir-buying for the last full day of our trip. By then, the kids have had a few days to see what merchandise is in the shops and have had some time to think about what they really want to spend their money on.

We'll be heading to Universal in 17 days (!!) and for the past several months, we've been making a trip to our local grocery store to redeem any plastic bottles and soda cans that we have accumulated. We usually redeem every two weeks or so. It's not a large sum (Usually about $4.00 - $5.00), but it adds up over time. My kids have been putting the money into a Disney bank on our kitchen counter (DH and I have also been adding change from our wallets/pockets into the bank, too). A few days before our Universal trip, I will cash in the contents of the bank and that will be the Souvenir Money.

 

[eliza61]

Here's how I avoided spending a single dime on souvenirs!

1) When relatives kindly asked what the girls (5 & 10) wanted for b-days and Christmas, we stressed how much they'd love a Disney gift card. This was a godsend!

2) Sounds corny, but I gave the kids an empty bucket to save pennies in. Grandma & Grandpa heard about it and gave them a big jar of change they had laying around. Many months later, they had scraped together around $80!


!

Actually not corny at all. My 16 year old complains that since he is only 16 and plays a lot of sports he can't work a part time job like his older siblings. So the entire family decided to take one of our gallon jugs we get for water and fill it with change. We made a bet that every day we would put at least 2 bucks a day into the jug. We started Oct 1st of 2010 and our trip is in August. We calculated 300 days (it's more but we took off a few days for forgetfullness. lol) at 2 bucks a day is 600 dollars.

Let me tell you, it's been fun seeing the dollar bills float up to the top. My husband has been slipping in a 5 every know and then and you should see us turning the jug upside down trying to figure out how many 5's are in there.

Dh also made a plug for the top that is not easy to get open so we stick to it.

 

[twinsplusone]

I bought t-shirts/sweatshirts from the Disney store prior to our trip and gave them to the kids throughout the week. That eliminated the want of those. The other items were purchased by them. They saved their money for a few years and ended up taking a little over $100 per child. They were very careful with their money. The only thing I bought them were pins that I thought they "needed." I bought them a pin from each park and one for their favorite ride. Otherwise all of their "treasures" were bought by them. Having their own money was the smartest thing we did. It stopped the "I want" every time we walked into a store.

 

[ssawka]

DD has 17 cousins, so we are never in need of toys or clothes, so we ask Friends and Family to give her Disney gift cards for Christmas and Birthdays. We use those cards to buy her souvenirs. We also do not go hog wild, she gets a T-Shirt and a stuffed animal every trip (with years on them). Fortunately, DD never wants very much. I guess it's because we never really bought her much when we travelled.

 

[ilovemk76]

We buy what we want. It is part of our vacation budget. We go to the outlet but also buy at the parks. We like to get unique things that are not available any where else. We do the same no matter where we vacation.

 

[tlbwriter]

We give DD a specific budget. Since we always go right before Christmas, we save money by telling her she gets to buy her own gifts at WDW, and we don't have to buy both gifts *and* souvenirs. (Well, we bought Santa gifts too, but now that we're no longer doing Santa I'm not sure how that's going to play out. )

Anyway, the "buy the souvenirs at home" trick would never work for me because my DD isn't the kind of kid who just wants "something from WDW." She wants something very specific. If she sees a stuffed animal or a necklace or a t-shirt that she loves, *that's* what she wants as a souvenir of her trip. Not whatever I happened to buy at Walmart back home.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

We don't have children, but DH wants something from every store we go in on Disney Property (worse than any child I have ever seen), but I think I learned something useful from my mom from when I was growing up, the word NO

I do give in occassionally, depending on our Souvenier budget, but our Souvenier budget next weekend is going to be tight, so I may just hand him $25 and be done with it.

Suzanne

 

[FINFAN]

I fit into the first part of the thread..."who has money for Disney..." let alone souvee's.

 

[Colleen27]

I think I've got weird kids... they don't really get the gimmies at Disney. They're too interested in the next ride, show, attraction, meal, character.

On our first trip we spent a fair bit on souvenirs (thinking it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip ) but since then we've settled into a good pattern - each of the big kids gets a pin, usually the year pin unless we're there for a special event/holiday, DD9 gets a charm for her charm bracelet, DS13 gets something from the Lego store, and DD2 gets to add one more Disney Parks plush to her collection. DH & I will sometimes pick something up for the house, a special mug or wine stopper or something along those lines. We spent less than $150 on merchandise last trip, and that's including the Mickey flamingo yard ornament I ordered when we got home because the $10 shipping was better than finding room for it in our luggage.

 

[dntd]

My kids get a $5 allowence put in a bank, so by the time aug hit they will have enough for the ridemakerz they want to build and the dress that my DD wants. I don't mind buying 1 or 2 thing oop but they have to pay for the rest

 

[Gr8t Fan]

We're not real big on souvenirs in our family either and spend most of our time on the rides or watching shows, parades, fireworks, etc. Most trips we don't buy anything at all. We do take LOADS of pictures and organize them into a scrapbook when we get back, and our kids look forward to that, so perhaps it gives them a different focus.

 

[katesorad]

I don't remember how much my parents gave us, but DH and I budgeted $600 for souvenirs for our last trip. We spent every penny.. and then some. Without regrets

 

[mommy2twingles]

My kids get disney gift cards from the family for birthdays, Easter, Christmas before we go. The family knows we go every few years. For this trip between the 3 kids they have over $1000. We will use this for special things like BBB and PL but the kids also use this as their spending money. They know this is all they have and not to ask mom for anything else. Last time it was great. They wanted the Monorail the first day we were their. Since they only had about $150 each that time I let them know that if they got it they could not get anything else. They each got little things throughout the week and ad the end of the trip pooled their money together to buy it. It helped teach them about money as well.

 

[bigbabyblues]

My boys are 10 & 7. We take whatever $ they have saved (we never tell them about the trip ahead of time, DH makes sure he either takes their $ or knows how much they have to spend), plus whatever the IL's give them, if any for that trip. They can spend it however they want, but when it's gone, it's gone, and they know it. DS10 had been saving for a certain soccer jersey a couple of years ago. He didn't know when we were going, but he knew how much it was, and he spent his money on it. That left him with very little money, but he knew that ahead of time.

DS7 likes cars, and spent half of his on them one trip; we didn't say anything, but DH did point out that if he bought all of those cars, he wouldn't have any money to spend at the Lego store. When we got to the Lego store, he asked how much money he had left and the said maybe he shouldn't have bought so many cars.

We buy any food/drink items they want, they don't have to spend their $ on that. I usually get sunglasses for them each trip, but after DS10 lost two pair in two days, I made him buy the next ones. The trip that it rained the first two days, I bought each of us a ball cap. They spend their $$ on the "toys".

 

[C.Ann]

Whenever we went anywhere (not just Disney) where there would be souveniers, we gave each child "x" amount of money to spend - with the understanding that when it was gone, it was gone.. It worked out well for us - they never asked for more - and believe me when I say that it wasn't a "large" amount.. It also made them stop and think about if that cheap plastic toy was worth the money - or if they should hold out for something of a better quality.. It was a good learning experience for them and we - as parents - were spared the begging and pleading..

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

I don't remember how much my parents gave us, but DH and I budgeted $600 for souvenirs for our last trip. We spent every penny.. and then some. Without regrets

The first big trip we took after my mom passed away (4 mnths after), I think I probably spent $2000 on souveniers and it didn't bother me one bit. There were 4 adults and 3 children on that trip and while I didn't buy everyones souveniers, some of that money was spent on other people.

Suzanne

 

[MrsPete]

We realized long ago that with kids, buying souveniers isn't a rewarding activity. When you spend time in the shops, the whole trip seems to take a consumer-based turn and the kids focus too much on "stuff". They take loads of time choosing something, and they frequently have buyer's remorse over the things they didn't choose. Allowing X amount per kid was worse than just buying things for them; the choosing took forever.

The real upshot of the whole thing, of course, was that the kids didn't care about the stuff once they got home. With a very few exceptions, the souveniers became yard sale fodder or went into the trash.

So years ago we stopped buying souveniers. We don't spend any time in the shops at all, and it wasn't a hard transition. The kids didn't whine and fuss.

I never really think about souveniers these days -- nor do my kids seem to do so -- but when we go on a trip with scouts, church group, or whatever, my kids seem irritated by their friends who take SO LONG to pick out this or that. They genuinely aren't into souveniers, and they prefer to spend their time doing something rather than shopping.

 

[Jaden'smommy]

my son was 6 the last time we were there, his first time. and he actually never really asked for anything. i spent maybe 100 on us both. and thats because i kept on asking him if he wanted something my son is my one and only, you would think he would be spoil, he gets a lot of things but hes just content with what he has. This year im budgeting about 300 for us both.

 

[WheelCEO]

im selective with my buying.. but i think some sellers are outrageous. I was trying to buy the HM tapestries, offered the guy $1400 his ebay ad was $1500 and he said no