Child Spending Money Tips

[ashleymrush]

Hi all! I'll be going on a week long family trip in June in this year. My two sons (8 and 5) will each have $100 of their own spending money for the trip. I'm torn as to how to best go about letting them spend their money. Let them spend when they want and run out fast or force them to look around and make a decision about the things they want the most toward the end of the trip. What advice and tips do you have for the best way to go about letting your kids spend their own money?

 

[danielocha30]

I would divide the money and give them a Daily amount, let's say $20 gift card and if they find a souvenir that is above their daily budget I will encourage them to save the money and with next day card buy the item if by the end of the day they still want to buy, is about teaching them to manage their money and avoid going "broke" on the first day

 

[banshezmom]

When we went a few years ago, we gave our kids each a gift card and told them they could get whatever they wanted - but it had to be approved by us. That way we could supervise their spending and make sure their purchase wasn't something they'd play with for 10 seconds and forget about it.
You could also download the shop Disney parks ap and let them look around before you go. That would give them - and you - an idea of what is appealing to them and help plan out their spending.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Our kids go every year, so usually know what they are going to want going into each trip, but we tell them to make sure to look around and be sure of what they want. Then on our last day, we will go back and get whatever it is that they really wanted.

Sometimes they listen, sometimes they don't. But when the money is gone, it's gone. Usually, they will wait until towards the end of the trip.

 

[momma2ethan]

My DS is in charge of his own spending money. We've been at age 8,9 and will go again just after he turns 10. I put it all on one gc designated just for him and he is aware of the total amount he has on the gc. I don't give him a daily limit or anything but do make him aware that if he spreads it out evenly he'll be able to get things at each park. For example, he starts off with $150 for our 6 day trip. I tell him he has $150 and that breaks down to $25/day. He knows that if he spends more than that in one day he won't have as much to spend on another day. I help him think outloud about his bigger purchases like the $$$ build your own light saber (Are you really sure you want to spend that much? You already have a perfectly good light saber at home, do you really think you need another?) after having a conversation questioning if he really needed it or not he decided against spending 2-3 days worth of his budget on one item. He did choose to spend that day's budget on a mini light saber that he could build, which he actually plays with all the time while his full size light saber still collects dust. In the end though, I leave it all up to him. I don't restrict his spending but once his gc is empty, that's it, no more buying things. Last year he ended up UNDERspending and had almost $20 left on his gc when we got to the airport that he spent at the EarPort.

We live pretty frugally at home and discuss whether we need certain things or if we'd rather save the money for something else. "Do you need to buy that $15 book at the book fair or would you rather check it out from the library and put that money in your Disney jar" is a common conversation in our household. He's pretty good at budgeting because I give him the freedom to make choices with a little guidance.

 

[design_mom]

Gosh, it's so hard to know what to do. I usually encourage my kids to look around before they decide on something. HOWEVER, we have also found that they don't always carry the same stuff everywhere, so if you see something you love, you ought to buy it. Obviously, if you want an "animal kingdom" or "epcot" branded item, you probably would NOT find them in the Magic Kingdom. However, even when it comes to stuffed animals, they have Mickey and Minnie almost everywhere, but sometimes you find one that's only carried in a particular place. (For instance, on one trip, my daughter wanted a stuffed animal of Remy from Ratatouille. She saw it at DHS on the first day of our trip. Ratatouille was a relatively recent movie, so I assumed Remy dolls would be everywhere. We spent the rest of the trip looking in all sorts of shops and never finding Remy. We finally asked someone who looked it up on their computer and it was ONLY sold at that particular shop at DHS. We had park-hoppers for that trip, so we were able to go back and get it, but I would have felt terrible if we hadn't been able to get it after all.)

There's a new Disney Shopping app that's supposed to tell you where to find certain things, so you might be able to look to see if the item your child wants will be available other places. However, on our most recent trip, we had trouble with the app. We were looking for a specific pin. The app told us 3 stores where it was "in stock." We went to all three and none of them had it -- and one of the stores didn't even carry pins! So we found the app to be less than useful.

 

[Elliesmommy]

I also purchased my daughter (8) a $100 gift card for her spending. Me, I told her she can buy whatever she wants. The reason I can tell her this is that she is frugal and often smart about her purchases. This is only because I have been teaching her since she was very young and she has learned the consequences of making poor purchasing decisions.

That being said, if your sons have not really been through these types of experiences, I would certainly not want them to learn at Disney where there is a high mark-up. In this case, I would agree with the poster with the advice to have the purchase approved by your first.

I hope you all have fun and your boys have fun shopping!

 

[AZMermaid]

Our last trip, my kids were 4 and 5.5. They had spending money from their grandpa plus some piggy bank money. They each had about $30-40 for "whatever they wanted." My daughter chose one of those animator princess doll sets the come in the plastic cases (Anna). This sorta killed me because they sell those at the Disney Store. But... I tried to gently sway her and in the end, she was thrilled with her choice. My son chose this Buzz Lightyear helicopter toy that I thought looked like total junk. The CM told me it works and again... gentle swaying did no good. He also loves it and it's a super popular toy when kids come over. So... this time I'm gonna try to just go with their choice- even if I think it's silly.

Both didn't quite understand that the had money leftover (especially my 4 year old). But they ended up also choosing a spray water bottle and an autograph book with pen (which broke, I replaced it, that one broke. Sharpies this year!). Ironically, I would have bought them those myself... but they wanted to use their money!

 

[kboo]

These are such great ideas! My kids are younger so I'm following along. This year we are considering a gift card for DD who will be almost 6. In past years, she earned money (mostly pennies, really), for "chores" or simple things like getting dressed by herself. She saved them in a little coin purse that she brought to WDW. Each day, if she wanted to be able to shop, she had to remember to bring her coin purse (which we would carry for her). Then if she really wanted something, we'd tell her how many of her coins it would cost (and we would make up the difference). So if we really didn't want her to buy something, we'd tell her it would cost more coins than she had (or clean her out, LOL). I'm not sure that will really fly this year, but she has shown pretty good judgment about money, so I'm wondering if she'll want to have a gift card or take her own money. I still laugh because her first Elsa dress, which she "bought" on her 3rd bday trip, cost her $0.11, but a stuffed Minnie later in the trip cleaned her out (about $0.15). Now she admits she has plenty of stuffed toys,* so we are getting her into pin collecting. Smaller, usually less expensive, and something the adults can get into too.

(*in her world, Mrs. Dumbo and Crush are married, and squirt and Dumbo are brothers)

 

[mom25kiddos]

Love all these great ideas. We have five kids and don't want to be constantly shopping. So our rule has always been we buy our souvenir on the last day. They look the whole trip and on the last day we choose, it has always been fine and they know what to expect and we are not constantly being asked to shop. Our older two (likely three this time) have their own money and use it for smaller purchases, things like extra snacks or whatever. We are not really there to shop, so don't make it a huge deal. I like the idea of the gift cards though-those that do that-do you let them keep it on them, or do you keep it for them? I am worried about it getting lost.

 

[AZMermaid]

I plan to go to disney gift card dot com and buy each kid a different design card. Then I will likely carry them myself- but that is an easy way to tell them apart. They have like a hundred designs and they are no cost- you just gotta order it in time for it to come in the mail.

 

[momma2ethan]

I like the idea of the gift cards though-those that do that-do you let them keep it on them, or do you keep it for them? I am worried about it getting lost.

On our first trip I held his gc because our park bags were a backpack and my crossbody purse. I kept it in my purse so it was easily accessed and did not get misplaced in the big bag. Last trip our park bags were a backpack (that he carried) and I wore a fanny pack. I had given him my old phone to use as a camera and he kept the gc in the wallet style phone case. IMO that's a personal decision you'll have to make.

 

[elaine amj]

You can return any park purchases in your resort gift shop. We just let the kids shop all over the place and every few days we would lay things out and reconsider, returning the unwanted items to the resort gift shop. Like someone pointed out, you can usually find the same merchandise everywhere - but not always and I would hate the scramble to find a wanted souvenir at the end of a trip. Lat time I was there for a girls trip, my girlfriend wanted to buy more of one souvenir only available in DHS. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and were unable to go back to get it.

 

[kreckl]

What we do, is each choose a shirt during our vacation. We also offer to buy our son any hat- some trips he hasn't wanted one, other times he has. Then he has had a $50 gift card that he do anything with- several times he built light sabers, and once he chose a mask-type wall hanging from AK....We bought a family bottle/fan mister, and he can have a snack whenever he wants ( we pack our own too but don't worry if he wants an ice cream or whatever.) Many times he has not used the gift card, or wanted much at all. I think having the shirt/hat choice helps, he looks at those and compares themes and styles....

 

[monorailsilver]

We have a dedicated day at downtown...Disney springs. So my kids know to look while we are at the park and when we go on our shopping day they can buy at the WOD. This way they aren't spending all their money by day 2.

If they don't see what they want at DS then we go back to the store in the park.

 

[viaggiamo]

We also buy a t-shirt for them, so that's exciting to choose, but I normally have a note page in my phone with their amount and what they have purchased and the amount leftover. We come from Australia so it's trickier to be prepared with gift cards.
I also let them buy whatever they want, but it has to fit in the suitcase...LOL...One year DS was 4yo and wanted to buy the hugest Peter Pan set you have ever seen. It would have taken up an entire suitcase. I vetoed that one!
But we also take photos of everything they love and go back and purchase on the last or second last day. We set aside an afternoon to shop. I also make sure we have visited DTD first to see the different stuff there.

 

[Surgie]

We are giving each grandchild a $75 Disney gift card for Christmas this year in advance of our May 2018 trip. I ordered them from the Disney website so I could have a wide choice of characters and get a free personalized message printed on the cardboard card that encloses the gift card. The kids will be 5,5,4 and 1 at the time of the trip. We don't plan to micromanage how they spend their money other than encourage them to look around before buying the first thing they see. But in the end, if they choose what I consider "junk" so be it. Part of the learning process and I don't like to give money gifts with strings attached.

 

[ashleymrush]

Just ordered the kids customized gift cards! Thanks so much for the advice!

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

I was prepared to be firm with a set spending limit for each of our five kiddos but had to cave when 15 yr old DD pleaded for and cuddled with the $30 Stitch plush . Teenagers .

 

[SandyinMonterey]

My daughter is 11, almost 12. She loves to shop, especially on vacation. Since she likes to spend, I really try to make money a "teachable" moment. When she receives monetary gifts for holidays and birthdays, I tell her at least half has to go in the bank. I tell her "pay yourself first!" It's working because when I card comes home and she opens it and there is money in there, I ask her "where does it go?" And she responds "in the bank." Once she had some money saved up and wanted to spend it on either American Girl or Lego store. Took her to both stores, went over prices. Explained if she purchased a Lego, she'd have money left over to save or buy something else but if she spent it at AG, it would be gone. I tell her "once it's gone, it's gone." I give her a lot of credit, I can tell she was thinking thru her options and she went with the Lego and saved the additional money. I have seen improvement in her urge to spend as soon as she gets some money. I tell her all the time, it's not what you make....it's what you spend. So I'm hopeful she's learning. When it comes to vacation, I guess I'm not in the norm as far as putting money on gift cards. I give her cash. I want her to see the physical cash when she spends. Plus, I don't want all the money sitting in one place (gift card). If you loose the gift card, then all the money is gone.