Children's spending money

[Thinktinknpixiedust]

Honestly, I have a 14 DS, 12 DS, and 2 DD. We are going for 10 days and of course mom and dad foot the food/lodging/tickets bill. What do you all recommend for each of them? I have read everyone else's and they sound fantastic. it seems 50$ is the average... but for how long? I have really wondered about this since the older ones get $ for grades (max 50$) those are soon and it looks like we'll be paying the max this time around (the notion that their vacation was coming with next report card helped keep them in line...)

 

[DW2006]

Our kiddos will be 7, 5, 3 and 6 months when we visit WDW. It will be a complete suprise to them and so while they do have savings (their ''penny banks'') My hubby has been saving all his change for a few months and will continue...that will be just blow money for them. I am buying disney themed stuff along (sunglasses, waterbottles, tee shirts, travel journals, stickers, pencils etc) and plan to give them fun stuff as we are there (maybe a treat or two each night in the cabin) but we are going to let them pick out a few things in the park/s. My plan is to let them look around during the week we are there and see all the stuff available...and then pick out a few things they most want and get those the last couple of days we are there. I want them to have fun and buy some stuff and souviners but then I don't really see the point in buying $40 dollars worth of Disneys stuff a day per child.

 

[Ahrizel]

Yep, you can spend Disney dollars at the outlet stores, I have. The cm's looked at me kinda strange when I asked if I could use them there 'of course, it's Disney". But you never know with outlets. So don't worry, they can spend those d-dollars where they can get more bang for the buck.

 

[MrsPete]

We don't do souveniers at all. Several years ago we started making an effort to cut down on the STUFF in our lives, and we're much better off for it. Shopping for souveniers seems to take so much time away from the vacation, especially if inexperienced purchasers are making their own selections (they can learn this skill at home where we have plenty of time). The kids don't seem to care about vacation souveniers for long anyway.

My kids have plenty of practical items with Disney icons -- sweatshirts, etc. -- all purchased from local stores or ebay, but not on vacation time.

 

[The Sorrentino's]

The spending money we're allowing for our children will include the souvs they want and snacks. My kids tend to want a snack and not finish it when it's our money being used to buy it. Anything other than juice or bottled water is considered a snack and whatever they want from the gift shops they can buy with their own money. I tend to shop on vacation because that's what I like to do and with the kids being there they will want some things too. I think that this time my kids will come home with money.

 

[amyjo]

My kids are the type that would try to buy the most items they could with the money they had instead of buying 1 or 2 nice things, so instead of giving them an amount they could spend, we let them each get 1 shirt, 1 hat, and 1 toy. We made the final decision on if the item was ok or not. We also ended up letting them each pick out a doll sized princess outfit because they play with their baby dolls all the time, more than any of their other toys. I didn't want to bring home a bunch of stuff that would just end up on the garage sale in a few months.

We will do something similar with our 4 yo and 2yo--they'll get to pick out one toy. The 10, 8, and 6 yo's will get about $30 each to spend. (Boy, I feel cheap after reading what some people let their kids bring. LOL!) I have already purchased t-shirts for them and we will buy all their meals, drinks, snacks so this is simply souvenir money. I do encourage them to get just one thing, though. We also have them wait until we do our Downtown Disney shop day to buy anything.

 

[mill4023]

We gave each of our kids (10,7,4) $50 to spend on whatever souvenirs they wanted during our 8 day trip. Then we also budgeted in another $50 per kid for things that DW and I might want to buy them (hats, t-shirts, etc.) We didn't tell them about this additional $50 since it was for things we wanted to buy them.

They did really well with budgeting their personal spending money. The 10 and 7 yr olds understood exactly how much they had and were careful in deciding what to spend it on. Both of them still had some money left on our last day because they had decided that they wanted to get at least one souvenir from each park we went to. For our 4 yr old, each time she wanted something, we would explain to her how much it cost and how much she would have left if she bought it. We also pretty much limited her to buying one thing each day.

This worked really well for us and we never had to deal with them constantly asking for us to buy them everything like we have on previous trips to DL. As far as junky stuff, we discouraged them from buying things a few times, but left the decision up to them in the end.

 

[Jsme]

Both of my children have been saving their money since April. They also had a yard sale with my mother. My son has $114 and my daughter has $145. To help them out I have told them they will have to wait until the last day to make their main purchases.

 

[Mickeyorbust]

We have been giving our 10yo DD a souvenier allowance since she was 6. First time, she blew it all on the first thing she "had to have" on the first day of the trip, dispite my warnings. It broke my heart watching her long for other things, but she learned from it and has been more selective since. I think you have the right idea. You want your kids to learn about budgeting and choosing wisely. Unfortunatley, that also means, letting them make mistakes.

 

[shakespeare]

Thanks for the advice. Never have been to Disney so not sure what everything will cost. I know my kids will want lots of things at each park. It's hard know how much to take.