Help! How much $$ do you give your children?

[Crazy Mother of Two]

My kids are 7 & 9 years old and my DH and myself are trying to figure out what a decent amount of spending money is.

We have already decided that Mommy & Daddy will buy them each a tee-shirt, a pair of Mickey Mouse Ears and the resort refillable cup(which is really for DH & Me 'cuz the kids don't drink soda).

We are on the DDP so none of the money is for food or snacks.

I was kind of thinking on $75 + $25 (for 1 Christmas gift that they can pick)each.

Plus I have to bring family back some stuff (neices, parents, etc..) Any cheap ideas?

Thanx for your input

 

[LynnTH]

Our last trip we took (last year) my kids were 6 and 4. Both of them went down with $200 in spending money. Some they got for Christmas in Disney Dollars, some was other Christmas & Birthday Money and money they earned at our garage sale. I tell you they are way more choosy in picking what they want to buy when it is their money. My DD4 was so cute. Everytime she wanted to buy something she would ask how much it was, we would tell her and then she would ask "is that all my money" , we would tell her no - then should we ask "is that alot of my money". She did this the whole trip so we were all saying it by the end. They both carefully picked out what they wanted and it was great. My DS6 came home with over $100 and my DD4 came home with about $60. (She takes after Mom).

You never hear the "I wants" because they know if they want it they will have to buy it. We bought all their food but if they wanted some candy they would use their own money and I bought them both T-shirts as well.

Not sure about the gifts for everyone else. I know it can sure add up doing that though. My niece was into Piglet so we got her a stuffed piglet. The World of Disney in Downtown Disney has a huge selection of gifts. You should be able to find something there...

 

[CharityLynn]

We bought Christmas Ornamanet one year when we went down, they even had a bag of like 10 bulbs with Disney Characters and we split it up so that we had 10 people done lol

 

[mamaloya]

We have 5 kids still at home, so they each get $40 on a disney gift card. If they want to put more than that on it, they have to earn it. They can do chores or save their allowance. My mom will sometimes give them money as well. We used to just buy the souvenirs for them, but last Feb we spent over $700 on souvenirs and swore that that will never happen again. In Dec we did the gift card thing and it worked great. Everytime they bought something, the receipt had how much they had left printed on it. There were no gimmies. At the end, dd6 was a couple dollars short for a princess doll she wanted. The other kids pooled their remaining cents and dollars to help her pay for it. I was so proud of them I started crying.

OK, I went way off topic here. Bottom line is that it all depends on your budget. I can't imagine giving each kid $200, but I have 5 kids. Decide what your budget is and then divide it between them. There are plenty of things under $10, so any amt will be fine. When I noticed my dd eye something out of her budget, I snuck back and bought it for her for Christmas. Boy was she surprised at Christmas.

 

[KadysMom]

I give my DD5 $20.00 per day. So in january we went for 10 days and the $200.00 was too much. She did not spend it all. We are going again in October, and i think i will give her $15.00 per day. We buy all her snacks and that stuff. Plus i saw some pins i knew she would love and i bought those too...

 

[crossfamily]

I give my kids each $10. per day there. I have 3 kids so it adds up quickly. Now my ds10 brings some of his own money with him also for the video games at the hotel. Last year we brought home more than half of their disney money so it worked out great..

I also bring home my neices and nephews gifts. I do pins for my neices and t-shirts for my nephews.. Or if I see something at DTD at the $10 or less store I'll get them something there.. Its more the thought that counts for kids on that..

Have a great trip.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

I will admit that we give our kids way too much money. However, they rarely spend it all at Disney. They usually will buy a few items, but then save the rest of their money and put it in the bank when we get home. They are little savers. When they were younger (teens now) I probably only gave them about $100 for an 8 day trip and we bought all their food and snacks.

 

[dameodie]

I'm planning on $10 a day per kid... We'll buy them snacks if we all decide to have one, but if they want candy or an extra snack type something they'll have to pay for it. We'll probably buy them a shirt and ears too

This way too, they don't get a lump sum at the beginning - if they want to buy something more expensive they'll have to think about it and get it later!

 

[brymolmom]

Well...maybe it's just because my kids are still young (3 and 5 on upcoming trip), but I don't give them their own money. They did get $10 each in Disney Dollars for b-days so they will spend that (probably at the $10 and under store at DTD).

We usually buy them one or two things during the trip. We put it off until the end. We don't get many 'I wants' (although dd usually does tell me what she wants for her next birthday presents by pointing it out ) - I guess because they're used to not buying things in most stores.

We likely will start as they get older and really want to spend more - allowing them to earn more to put toward their spending money and maybe start them off with about $25 each...

I do buy them a few things before we leave home (tee-shirt and light up toy for upcoming trip) that don't get used until the trip. So really, they don't need to get too much more new on the trip.

 

[solgent]

Hmm, you all are a generous group of parents!

I authorized the kids to spend $10 each (for the whole trip) and $10 on each sister for a birthday present. In this way they each were able to get $30 of stuff because they basically dictated to their sisters what they wanted as their gift. I had bought pins on eBay and they each had about 8 for trading.

Their great aunt gave them $50 each for Disney this year so I don't think I need to supplement that. They each got 10 trader pins for Hanukah and two of them pooled their money to buy another batch of 10, so they'll be able to do lots of pin trading.

 

[dijid]

I think we gave our kids $15 for the week last trip. This trip, they'll be 8, 6 and almost 4 and will get probably $15 in Disney Dollars. They can choose to bring money from their bank if they want (there isn't much in there.) I really don't feel like there's that much for them to spend money on. I try not to encourage buying just for the sake of buying. They'll each pick out a souvenier or two and really, they'll be happy.

 

[tink_about_it]

We probably spent $60 on each. This time the deal for the older girls is that we will buy the tshirt they want, and they are using their birthday $ for toys or what-have-you.

 

[Steph9072]

We just returned. Our kids were given $40 in Disney bucks for Christmas. We gave them $60 for an even $100. If they wanted to earn more they could. For example dd had her tooth fairy $$ she took.

We bought the younger two Minnie ears & stitch ears. The older one wanted sunglasses.

They all came back with tons of loot. They picked it out they paid for it. I carried the $$ for the younger too. Dss (11) we allowed him to have $10-15 with him and I carried the rest.

This was our first trip. So next time we may cut down a bit.

HTH

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

Well I must say that I appreciate all the input I got! And in the end, I think that for out 8 day trip, I will be lowering the figure to each receive $50.00 + the $25.00 (for the holiday gift that they will pick out and I will save until holiday time). Considering DH and myself will be buying them the shirts and ears - they should have more than enough to spend! Thank You.

 

[Jill in Chicago]

Our family is not big on shopping. We have never even been to DTD. We do not spend time looking in the stores, so there really is not a lot of opportunity for my two boys (now 18 and 13) to want very much. When they were younger we let them each have one t-shirt and pick out one toy/keepsake for under $20.00 and that was it for the whole week. My boys have never begged for candy. (No idea how this happened as I loved candy as a kid.) If they wanted a dessert we got it for them, but usually they just wanted some lemonade. (This must be DH's genes.) The more and more I hear about how much everyone spends the more I realize how blessed I am to have such easy boys who really rarely ask for much at all, especially at Disney. They have only been twice and they really understood that the trip was not about shopping, but about enjoying the parks. I think the more you can emphasize this prior to the trip the better.

 

[DLBDS]

$50-$100 depending on the length of stay in either Disney dollar form or a gift card. Kinda prefer the gift card as it's easy to keep up with and they give you the balance left on the card after each purchase.

 

[LilTinks]

I've been stocking up on little Disney items from the Dollar Store. They have a whole section of items (princess notepads, little light-up pens with Disney characters on top, mini-marker set, etc.). I also found 2 small plastic purses, one Tink and one Ariel, so that I can pack all their stuff inside. My hope is that between the special, normally forbidden snack foods I'm bringing down and these little surprises, I'll be able to treat them every day with something new (and spent less than $20 to do it).

I've encouraged the grandparents, aunts and uncles to get them Disney Dollars, and they each have about $20. I've also been giving $1 Disney Dollars to them when they go above and beyond their regular "chores." My DD6 has even gotten a few from the tooth fairy

I'm sure we're going to do a little shopping, and fully intend to buy the mandatory t-shirt and/or Mickey ears, but like another poster mentioned, my kids aren't accustomed to getting something everytime we walk into a store, so I'm not anticipating (perhaps foolishly?!) that we'll have any problems. My hope is that the magic of their first trip to Disney will be enough in itself!

 

[unc95kelly]

I have 3 DD, ages 9, 5 and 3......the oldest has $35 total in Disney Dollars for the week and the youngest have $30 each in Disney Dollars for the week. That is for the "things" that they want. We will be getting ears and a t-shirt for them seperately.

 

[badblackpug]

That sounds ike a more than adequate amount of money. What I have done in the past is schedule a "shopping day" at the end of the trip. During the trip the kids write down the things and the prices of the things that they like, and on "shopping day at DTD" they then decide what items are really important to them and what items were just a spur of the moment thing according to what their "budget" can handle.

I do give each kid a couple of rolls of quarters and pennies an we do pressed pennies. That saves a lot of "I want, I want" because they feel they have goten something (and for only 51 cents)

I am a softie, thpugh, and will buy little things (tatoos, pens, pins, magnets) here and there.

I also read another posters post that they "pay" their kids $1 for each book they read, and that the kids use this for spending $$. I love this idea.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

Our family is not big on shopping. We have never even been to DTD. We do not spend time looking in the stores, so there really is not a lot of opportunity for my two boys (now 18 and 13) to want very much. When they were younger we let them each have one t-shirt and pick out one toy/keepsake for under $20.00 and that was it for the whole week. My boys have never begged for candy. (No idea how this happened as I loved candy as a kid.) If they wanted a dessert we got it for them, but usually they just wanted some lemonade. (This must be DH's genes.) The more and more I hear about how much everyone spends the more I realize how blessed I am to have such easy boys who really rarely ask for much at all, especially at Disney. They have only been twice and they really understood that the trip was not about shopping, but about enjoying the parks. I think the more you can emphasize this prior to the trip the better.

I think it is a thing with boys in general (for the most part). DS has to be coerced into buying anything and my brothers were the same way. Men's needs are simple, that's why they don't understand the women who have that shopping gene-like me!