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

[Worfiedoodles]

Lucky me, my son does have the shopping gene...DS9 will have $230 for his 14 day vacation. This is allowance money he has earned. When he spends his own money, he always spends less. I predict we will come home with $100 or so. We have told him he is responsible for buying everything himself -- but that does not include snacks or clothes. It does mean if he wants the souvenir slush cup, that's on him.

We don't have to pick up souvenirs for relatives, because my nieces live in Tampa. DS is an only, so we can let him have more latitude. Plus, he really does play with the toys he gets. On our last two trips he bought sets of the PVC characters (probably not so much for our next trip), and he played with them for years.

I do try to steer him toward the things I know he will use. In our case, the limit is just as much for me as him. As we found out on our last trip, I will buy him all kinds of stuff he doesn't really want, just because I think it's neat. I probably need my own spending limit, but as long as I get up and go to work every day, that's not going to happen! LOL

 

[Tam1067]

I agree to buy each kid (I have 3) a shirt of their choice. I also provide each kid with $20, and they're allowed to save up their allowance money if they choose for Disney. I think each of my boys has about $50 right now, but how much they choose to spend is up to them. Also, I'm paying them Disney money for reading books--$1 or $2 for each book they read, not counting comics--and that's adding to to about an additional $30 per kid. By the time we go, I expect each boy will have about $50 from books and the $20 I contribute plus whatever allowance money he wants. As for DD, she's not really old enough to understand the money yet, so I'm not sure how to handle that one.

 

[herodrx1]

My kids are 7 & 11 and we must be cheapos too!! We usually let them know they can have one thing to bring home. When they were little I would say it needed to be something "medium" in size or two "small" things. That would usually end up in the $25 range. We would look in all the shops and then buy the items near the end of the trip. If they were really torn btw items I would wait until they picked and then get the other for a bday/christmas gift.
Now that they are older they try to find the most stuff for their $25 item. We always talk about if it "means" something to them or if they will use it when they get home. That helps them determine if it is "worth" the money to them.

 

[HPGIRL]

4 allowence my mom gives me about 6$ perweek but my grandma gives me a couple bucks exta!HE!HE!HE!HE! But 4 WDW I have to save up my money.That is unfair,don't u think!


~coming from a kid

 

[cccm]

DD is allowed to get one item per park. In Epcot she got a fan in Japan, in MK a watch, AK she couldn't find anything she wanted and at POP a scrunchie. I guess I was lucky last year. The same will hold true for this year, wonder what she will want.

I had her room key the whole time, it had the ability to charge on it. Wonder what would have happened if I told her.

I'm paying for my sister and nieces for hotel and park. I think I'll also give the girls $20 each for the day we are together.

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

4 allowence my mom gives me about 6$ perweek but my grandma gives me a couple bucks exta!HE!HE!HE!HE! But 4 WDW I have to save up my money.That is unfair,don't u think!


~coming from a kid

Well, you didn't state your age but it sounds like if you just saved up 1 1/2 months allowance you would have a decent amount to spend! (plus there's always Grandama!! Just give her the puppy dog eyes! It works on my Mom with my kids!)
And just think...your parents are teaching you the value of a dollar! And believe me...that's the kind of stuff you need to succeed in life these days!

Enjoy being young!

 

[MickeyNicki]

The first place we took our 2 nieces was DTD. They had a fun time at the $10 and under shop. The older niece (10) was able to get a few things for her friends back home.

 

[snowman]

DN13 is going with about $100.00 for spending money for 7 days. This is just for his personal tops & whistles (along with anything he wants to buy for any of his friends). I'm taking care of meals, ears and a T-shirt (and probably some amount of snacks).

He gives me half of his babysitting money from each gig to put in his Disney can. So far he has $62.00, but we haven't been to the redeemtion center in forever (our garage looks like a bottle drive gone amok). That should take him to his goal. Also - if he rakes blueberries he can do whatever he wants with that money.

I had planned on buying him a Disney Gift Card. However, I'm buying him a Visa Gift Card so he doesn't have to deal w/ cash and also so he doesn't feel he HAS to spend all his money at WDW. On the off chance that he comes home with money he can still spend it anywhere.

On the other hand, when he was 7 he had $5.00/day to spend for our 7 day trip...as he got older the amount of money he had to spend got bigger. I sorta use the $1.00 per year of age per day...(rounded up to the next $10.00 because round, even numbers make me happy).

 

[deedeetoo]

OMG. I am in shock reading this thread.

Put us in the cheapo camp.

We don't give our kids any spending money. If they want to buy something they can use their allowance. That said I do pay for my dd8 to have her hairwrapped each trip, and we do usually buy them each 1 souvenier in the $10-$20 range.

 

[Jen66]

I admit that we are really lenient on vacation. The kids will have some of their own money (probably about $50 each from Grandmas), but we will also buy them things. Both of my kids (DD 12 and DS 10) love to shop. I will probably get them some cute shirts for school (epoct WS has really neat stuff). I do not give them a set amount, it just depends on how much I have saved!

 

[Arvandor_Ilfirin]

My mother gave me $100.00 for our 8-day vacation when I was 13. I've never had allowance, so the only time I was able to spend money of my own was on vacation. I think the things that you should keep in mind are how long you're staying, and how much spending money you can afford for all of you.

I think 75+25 gift is a perfect amount for a long vacation. Disney gifts and toys can be very expensive to begin with, especially the nicer items. ( I know I saved every dollar I could until I finally found what I wanted, and spent it all on a 99$ Maleficent statue! ) If you think 75$ is too much spending money, you can also consider letting your children each buy their own daily snacks, with a maximum of 1-2 per day. That way they can manage both toys and food, and decide which things are more important to them before spending all of their cash.

I'm sure you'll be fine, whatever you decide! Have a great trip!

 

[Amirah95]

We a lot $100 dollars to our DD11 and it's not to be spent on food. Everytime she buys something it gets deducted from her spending money. She usually has about $20 bucks left over by the last day of our 7 night trips. So far so good.

 

[missdramaqueen]

Hi!
On my last disney trip my mom gave us each (my brother and I) $250 for the whole trip....this was around the holiday time and the major part of our gifts was going to Disney in the first place. In the end we recieved holiday gifts, arrival gift baskets and the $250 was spent on aimless items...I was going thru my plastic bins in my closet and probably found half of the stuff bunched up in there. I think there should a limit for the entire trip say $50-$75 dollars and not a limit for each day such as $10 dollars. What if one day at the beggining of the trip (Charlie) sees this great tee but it's 20 dollars then he may spend his money on a bunch of little toys that he will never use again.
Just My Opion not that I'm the one working for the money....
missdramaqueen

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

My mother gave me $100.00 for our 8-day vacation when I was 13. I've never had allowance, so the only time I was able to spend money of my own was on vacation. I think the things that you should keep in mind are how long you're staying, and how much spending money you can afford for all of you.

I think 75+25 gift is a perfect amount for a long vacation. Disney gifts and toys can be very expensive to begin with, especially the nicer items. ( I know I saved every dollar I could until I finally found what I wanted, and spent it all on a 99$ Maleficent statue! ) If you think 75$ is too much spending money, you can also consider letting your children each buy their own daily snacks, with a maximum of 1-2 per day. That way they can manage both toys and food, and decide which things are more important to them before spending all of their cash.

I'm sure you'll be fine, whatever you decide! Have a great trip!

Thanx for the response! Now....

I Want A Cookie!!!!!

Immortal Heaven

Saesa omentien lle

Namaarie

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

I think there should a limit for the entire trip say $50-$75 dollars and not a limit for each day such as $10 dollars. What if one day at the beggining of the trip (Charlie) sees this great tee but it's 20 dollars then he may spend his money on a bunch of little toys that he will never use again.
Just My Opion not that I'm the one working for the money....
missdramaqueen

That is an excellant point!! Initially I had planned on giving them gift cards with assorted amounts to spend ($10, $25, $5) each day - so they didn't know what amount they would be getting (they would stick their hand in and pick). It sounded like a neat idea ...in the beginning. But then I got thinking the same thing you stated - 'what if they find something they want that is more money then their gift card for the day' - so I nixed the whole idea and went with 1 lump sum!

 

[Andrea from PA]

Just chiming in on gifts to bring back for others -- You mentioned you were on Dining Plan -- IMO you get more than enough food & never use all the snack credits (unless it is hot & then it all goes to water!) Use some of the snack credits at the hotel store on lollipops or Mickey Rice Crispie Ears!

I'm not much into bringing back souveniors -- basically if I can get it on line or at a local store it isn't worth getting-- But my DSIL goes crazy buying on trips (she is single & travels overseas) and most of it isn't appreciated enough by the kids

 

[aimeeg]

So, I am not in the cheapo group.

We are going down with $530 spending money. We have 2 girls. 3 and 11 months. DD3 is getting $10 a day to do whatever she wants with. I bought a lot of pins on ebay for $50. She has 25 pins to do whatever she wants with.

Ears and the BBB with Belle dress is on us. It was a potty training bribe. Boy did it work!!! I also put together an awesome bag from Cinderella. For the last six months I have been picking up little things from the Disney Store. They had a spend $40 and get a free Mickey or Minnie. My MIL and I both spent $40 and got the girls the stuff animals.

Myself, I am picking a pearl and having it set in Epcot Center. That should set me back about $75. We are also going to buy pictures at the Richard Petty Driving Experience.

This is our first trip to WDW. We did not charge a penny and I do not feel guilty at all about of spending. We worked really hard to save for this trip and we are going to have a blast!

 

[GlendaO]

My two, DD 8 and DD 7 get about 100 each for the six day trip and we provide food, snacks and shirts. Of course, this year, with free DDP, we're especially making out! But, we also get some things. Last year, oldest wanted the Cinderella light-up castle and I said no because they had two play castles in the playroom already that got little use. So I do overrule on occasion. My DH is typically the tightwad but at WDW he shops on and offsite so I have to watch him! I'm also a little afraid this year because the oldest DD and to a lesser extent, youngest, has discovered Legos and we'll be visiting DTD. I'm sure he'll buy things there as well.
But, Disney is an annual trip and where we live there is no Disney store and not of lot of shopping options unless we really want to drive so we do tend to splurge a little...
Glenda

 

[Arvandor_Ilfirin]

Thanx for the response! Now....

I Want A Cookie!!!!!

Immortal Heaven

Saesa omentien lle

Namaarie

Ah!
Mae govannen. Lle quena i'lambe tel' Eldalie?

You get a huge cookie for not only getting it right, but knowing Elvish as well! I'm impressed!!

 

[kcrew]

I guess I am probably the exception here, but last year my DS 6,8,9 each had a 25.00 gift card they recieved as gifts DS 6 never bought anything and we are still stuck with the Disney card..., DS 8 bought a medallion to hang off his lanyard, and a device called the "String Thing"(that incidentally never worked...big buyer beware lesson learned), and DS 10 bought a bunch of little trinkets around EPCOT. Their grandmother bought them each a 2006 pin before we left and that was it. DH and I bought nothing for them or ourselves. I guess we are just not shopping people!!